Tempered Shift
by Aliora
Summary: Orochimaru has discovered the means to unimaginable power. For their own safety, the remaining members of Team 7 disperse and Sakura finds herself in the care of Kakashi. Kakasaku. [ABANDONED]
1. Request

Chapter One  
Request

"You know, Sakura," Ino started conversationally, twirling a strand of hair around her finger, "I've decided I don't want to be alone any more."

Sakura stifled a groan. Alone? Ino? If she were truly single (and Ino was nothing if not focussed, so she presumed it to be the case) it was a recent development. Extremely recent. In fact -

"What happened to that Chuunin examiner?" She couldn't remember what village the handsome nin had been from, but she'd been expecting his attractive features and relative mysteriousness would have kept her friend entertained for a month at the least. But considering the exams had finished less than a week ago...well, she'd obviously overestimated his appeal.

Her friend snorted.

"Him? Please. Easy on the eyes, to be sure, but his conversation skills weren't that amazing."

Sakura, who had never known Ino to be interested in _anyone_ for their conversation, wisely kept silent.

"And so, I've moved on. I even have someone in mind, and this, my dear, is where you come in."

Ino was looking at her expectantly. Sakura blinked. This...this was new. She couldn't remember the last time Ino had required her assistance in obtaining a boyfriend. In fact, she was certain Ino had never needed any help on that front. Her friend was tall, blonde and had at least two assets that rendered any aid Sakura could give entirely unnecessary. Unless...oh shit...

"Naruto!"

Ino twitched. "I'd appreciate it if we never spoke of the moment you thought I might be attracted to Naruto ever again."

_Oh. _"Well forgive my confusion, but you have to admit, asking for my help with a boy is certainly...different. I don't know what I could possibly do to help." Something occurred to her. "Is he injured? I can only heal recent wounds, and I can't take away disfigurement. Dammit Ino, if you're that shallow--"

"Sakura!" Ino sounded scandalised. "Thanks for the faith in me. Nice to know my best friend thinks I'd need her help in curing a potential boyfriend from _disfigurement."_ Her tone was laced with sarcasm, and Sakura was surprised to find an undertone of hurt as well.

"I --" _I didn't mean it?_ "I'm sorry."

Ino waved it off, impatient to get to the good part. "No, don't worry. All my guys are stunning, I can see where you're coming from. Where was I? Yes, I need your help. This one...you know him better than I do. I want you to drop a few hints, let him know I'm single, tell him a few amusing anecdotes that paint me favourably. So none of those ones you like to tell about when we were twelve, mnkay?"

_Okay, now I'm totally confused_. Ino was incredibly sociable, and moved in circles Sakura was barely familiar with. Her vaunted cleverness was failing her, and she wished she could channel Shikamaru so that Ino's logic would become clear. In fact, she wondered, not for the first time, why of all the guys of Ino's acquaintance, Shikamaru had never been considered suitable boyfriend material. She rubbed her forehead tiredly, hoping all would be revealed soon. It had been a long day and bed was looking extremely attractive.

"Ino, I'm too tired to even hazard a guess as to who you've got your heart set on." _This time. _"So if you could just tell me, I could go to sleep, and maybe an awesome plan will come to me in my dreams." Now that, that was a bare-faced lie. But she hoped it would appease her friend and cut the evening short - once she'd set her sights on someone, Ino could expound upon their virtues for hours at a time. And while Sakura was usually content to be a supportive friend, she was too sleepy to listen much longer.

Ino blushed. Sakura stared, then shook herself. She was possibly hallucinating. Surely there was no way Yamanaka Ino had just blushed while thinking about a boy. They were both seventeen now, and Ino had been unattached only rarely since blooming early a few years ago. Sakura had never filled out much, but she was resigned to it by now. _And really, a larger chest would get in the way and reduce my accuracy with shuriken. _Her reasoning was sound, she told herself. _But really, who wouldn't have a complex after working with Tsunade-san every day?_

"Come on, Ino, spill it! My eyes are closing by themselves." She reinforced that with an elaborate yawn, hoping the other girl understood. Ino cleared her throat.

"Well...you have to promise not to laugh."

Against her will, Sakura's curiousity was piqued. While annoying, Ino's coyness was unusual - her honesty and open appreciation was an attractive feature, and guys liked to know where they stood with her. She'd been through many relationships, to be sure, but they'd all ended amicably and Sakura was hard-pressed to think of any ex-boyfriend of Ino's that wasn't still friends with her. This mystery boy had to be someone completely different from Ino's regular type, and for the life of her, she couldn't think who it could be.

"Of course I'm not going to laugh."

Ino touched her two pointer fingers together in a gesture of uncertainty, then cleared her throat.

"It's...it's Kakashi."

Sakura gaped. The boy that had Ino in a tizzy was a man! And not just any man...Sakura's _teacher! _She tried unsuccessfully to gather her wits, and managed only to gape a bit more.

"Sakura...Sakura, say something!"

She swallowed. How to say this? How to dissuade her friend from this foolish notion?

"Ino...he's a bit older, you know that?"

Ino nodded. "Fourteen years older than us. I've always considered fifteen years to be the extent of a suitable age gap, so it's all rather lucky, isn't it?"

Sakura clutched for more reasoning.

"Um, you haven't ever seen his face, right?"

Her friend frowned. "Really Sakura, you're not going to start on that disfigurement thing again, are you? Kakashi-san is fine the way he is, mysterious and aloof. Although I imagine he'd need to take that mask off for some things..." She giggled coquettishly and Sakura struggled against the urge to slap her.

"I just...I just don't know."

Ino sighed. "Sakura, I know he's been the leader of your team for five years now, but it doesn't detract from the fact he's a very good-looking man. Maybe if you opened your eyes and actually _looked_ at guys as guys for once, you'd see what I mean."

Sakura was slightly offended that Ino considered her immune to masculine allure, and told her so. Ino sighed again.

"It's not that you can't bring yourself to see men in an attractive light, it's that you _don't. _You're clinging to Sasuke's memory, and it's holding you back. And really, Sakura...you need to move on. He isn't coming back. There are plenty more fish in the sea, and some of those fish aren't even pompous asses who don't give a shit about your feelings. I mean, I know you like that sort of thing, but nice guys do exist."

Standing abruptly, Sakura pushed back her chair with more force than she'd intended. It crashed onto the floor, and heads turned curiously toward the girls' table. Ino gave the other restaurant patrons a flustered smile, and they returned to their meals. Sakura pulled money from her hip-pack and dropped it on the table.

"Sakura," Ino pleaded, following suit then continuing outside. "Don't be like this. I'm sorry I said the S-word but I'm right and you know it."

Sakura stopped, then turned, her voice dangerously calm. "Do me a favour, Ino, and mind your own business." She started off in the direction of her house.

Ino remained behind her, watching her go. She called out, "Think about what I said! We'll talk about my situation tomorrow!"

Raising her hand in acknowledgement, Sakura continued home. Now she was more awake than ever, and she knew it was going to be a long night.

* * *

The Hokage was where he expected she'd be, sitting behind her desk, the mounds of paperwork obscuring its surface as always. He'd expected, as well, that her features would be tight with annoyance, her irritation at being kept waiting scarely concealed. What he hadn't anticipated was the added presences of Jiraiya and Naruto, their faces grim. 

"Kakashi." Tsunade's tone was curt.

"Yo." He sauntered in and waved cheerily, eyes crinkling into a smile. _Too late now. It'll just have to be a case of 'begin as you mean to go on'._

"How nice of you to join us." She gestured impatiently at a seat next to the others, and he wandered casually over to it and sat, suddenly curious as to why he'd been called before her. Missions had been few and far between recently - the shortage of qualified shinobi was a thing of the past, with excellent chuunin and jounin swelling the ranks and leaving him with more and more free time.

And judging by their expressions, Jiraiya and Naruto already knew what was going on. He waited.

Tsunade frowned and shuffled some papers. "He...Orochimaru. Reports lead me to believe his intention is to move on Konoha Village. It's not certain what he's planning, but I understand he has one objective, and two ways of reaching it."

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow.

She continued. "You have to understand, it's in the interests of protecting the village, Kakashi. If I could do it myself I would, but I can't escape the responsibilities of my home any longer." She eyed Jiraiya, who shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Naruto stared at the floor, fists bunching on his thighs. Kakashi cursed his love of a late entrance, and wished Tsunade would stop being so cryptic.

"So what is you want me to do?"

_Shit._ He hoped he hadn't sounded too eager. But these last few weeks had been so quiet and he was unaccustomed to having so much spare time. It certainly didn't help he'd read every one of his books cover to cover over the years, and it was probably too late in life to be branching out into alternative genres. So his apartment was spotless, and his friends were sick of him, and thank goodness the chuunin exams had been last week or he'd have gone insane.

And subsequent sets of one-fingered pushups were just as boring as the first.

So he looked back at the Hokage with a facade of bland indifference, while inwardly relieved his days of inactivity were over.

"I'm glad you asked." Tsunade smiled, then, and Kakashi's eye drooped. _Uh-oh._

* * *

He didn't notice Naruto had followed him until he was halfway home. 

"Kakashi-sensei!"

The boy was out of breath, and Kakashi realised he'd probably been calling him for some time now. He stopped, and regarded his student. Naruto had grown under Jiraiya's tutelage. His abudant chakra still hummed with barely leashed power, but it was less volatile now...somehow controlled, and more dangerous. He'd gotten tall, and stood straight and proud, no longer the excitable child of five years ago. Nothing could dampen his spirit, however, and he was surprised to find a feral smile on Naruto's face, especially in light of Tsunade's request.

_Well, _mission. He'd politely asked her if she could "request" it of someone else, and she'd promptly changed it to a mission - one that he was not permitted to refuse.

"Naruto."

He felt a sudden pang at his neglect of Naruto. The boy had just as much power as Sasuke, but he'd ignored it in favour of the young Uchiha, whose skills and personality had reminded him so much of himself. And Sakura..._dammit._ Hindsight was a bitch.

"We're leaving tomorrow. Jiraiya wanted me to tell you we're heading south, so it would probably be best if you two went in another direction. We don't want to make it easy on...that bastard." He noted absently that Naruto hesitated much like Tsunade did when it came to naming their enemy.

He nodded, and leaned against a shop wall. He crossed his arms and looked down at Naruto, who obviously hadn't finished.

"What's the matter?"

The boy flushed, and bit his lip.

"Jiraiya...that ero-sennin...he said if you wanted to, you could swap. You could take me, and he could..." he trailed off, moving from one foot to the other, eyes downcast.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes, and after a moment, reached out and patted Naruto on the head. The boy looked up, surprised.

"Tell your teacher we won't be exchanging charges. I've read every one of his books, and that's given me pretty good insight into his psyche. We'll keep things the way Tsunade wished, shall we?"

He smiled down at Naruto, who looked relieved.

"Ah...good." He nodded stiffly and moved to leave, before stopping and looking back.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmmm?"

"Look after her, will you?"

Apparently embarrassed, Naruto gave him an awkward wave, and then left without waiting for an answer. Kakashi watched him go, touched by his concern. _I guess Tsunade was right. They were a lot closer than anyone realised._

* * *

The doorbell roused Sakura from her stupor. She'd managed to get to sleep ridiculously late (or early?) and had awoken groggy and irritable. She was banging pots and pans in the kitchen, which served to take the edge of her anger but did little else to improve her mood. She would have felt better if there was someone - preferably Ino - that she could shout at, but both her parents were at work and Naruto had said something about meeting with Tsunade-san earlier that morning. 

"I do not," she grumbled, cracking an egg into the frypan, "cling to _anyone's_ memory." She mixed it about with a spatula, and slammed some fish in beside it. "And I am _not,_" she flipped both, "as Ino seems to think I am," she cut a slice viciously from the bread on the table, "a masochist!"

She thumped the plate of breakfast onto the table and rummaged in the drawer for chopsticks. She wasn't particularly hungry, but managed to get halfway through the meal before the doorbell rang.

In the mood she was in, she hoped it was Ino.

She was both disappointed and surprised to find the person indirectly responsible for her current fury. "K-Kakashi-s-sensei," she stammered, moving aside to let the jounin through. "What can I do for you?"

He moved down the hall, sniffing the air, and she followed him to her own kitchen, feeling ridiculous. He stopped and looked down at the rest of her breakfast.

"Good," he said, almost to himself. "You'll need the energy."

_Ino, did I mention he's really weird?_

"Er...for what?"

He sat down at the table, and smiled up at her, and she got a sinking feeling that she was going to have to do something she didn't want to do. She knew this smile, and it didn't bode well.

"Pack your bags, Sakura. We're going on a trip."


	2. Promise

Chapter Two  
Promise

They left under the cover of darkness, in that moment between twilight and true night. Kakashi had been certain they were a step ahead of Orochimaru, but he'd cautioned her to be on guard at all times. He'd been reluctant to explain the need for their flight - that could, apparently, wait until they were away from the village. Once upon a time she would have refused to budge; would have dug in her heels and _demanded_ to be told...but she was older now, wiser, and something on what she could see of her teacher's face stopped the immature outburst.

Sakura's anger had dissipated in the wake of Kakashi's bombshell and she'd finished the rest of her breakfast without tasting a thing.

"Tsunade will let your parents know what has happened." It was almost awkward, and she wondered if he was trying to comfort her.

"Naruto..." Her question hung in the air.

"Jiraiya will be taking him away. The Hokage...we thought it would be best for you to be separated." _Divided we won't make an easy target._ She nodded and rinsed the plate, before making her way upstairs and packing methodically. Kakashi remained down in the kitchen, and for the moment, she was glad of it. Although, she supposed she was going to have to get used to his presence. It was going to be just the two of them for what could possibly be a very long time.

She hoped Ino would forgive her.

----

"You're WHAT!"

"Shh!"

Sakura glanced around quickly. She prayed Ino's extreme reaction had gone unnoticed, and luckily the villagers milling about on the street seemed accustomed to her friend's loud behaviour.

"But...but why? You're only a chuunin, why would you be accompanying Kakashi on a secret mission?"

In the absence of an actual explanation, it had been up to Sakura to invent a likely excuse. Wanting to show off...just a little...she'd fabricated a story that was a testament to her superior ninja skills and passionate bravery. Apparently it had been too much, and Ino was finding it hard to swallow.

She shrugged. "I am Tsunade-san's apprentice, after all. Perhaps she felt it was something only a medic-nin could do?"

That seemed to satisfy Ino somewhat, and it took a while for Sakura to realise it wasn't the mission that Ino couldn't believe - it was the company.

"All alone with Kakashi!" She sighed, and Sakura fought once more the urge to slap her. She tried to convey it so Ino would understand.

"Yeah, all alone with Kakashi, and the enemy, in the wilderness, with no bathtubs, and no shamp--"

"Okay! I get it!" The thought that Sakura might be in danger obviously hadn't occurred to Ino, and she looked almost sadly at her, before pulling her into a fierce embrace. "Don't get hurt, you hear me?"

Laughing softly, Sakura returned the embrace, before breaking away and flicking her friend on the forehead.

"Idiot," she said. She reached for her pack and went to make off.

"Sakura," Ino called, before she could get very far. "Remember to put a good word in for me. With...you know."

With an eerie sense of deja vu, Sakura lifted her hand in a backwards wave, and continued down the street, afraid to look back. Because she was worried, she was scared, and if she could convince Ino that nothing was the matter, it would go a long way towards convincing herself.

----

They met up with her other goodbye at the town gate, something Sakura would have considered an accident had Kakashi not wandered off into a nearby copse to give her time alone with Naruto. She watched his retreating back gratefully, before turning to her other best friend. His eyes were bright but he looked determined, and she understood that Jiraiya had shared with him the truth.

Pasting a smile across her face, she opened her arms wide and he stepped into her hug. They stood that way for a while, and Sakura breathed in his warmth and unbending will.

"I don't know why we're leaving," she admitted. It seemed crazy now, to be sent off with no explanation.

"Kakashi-sensei will tell you," he said, the words a pleasant rumble to her ears, where she was pressed against his chest. It was strange how easily Naruto could calm her now, make her worries disappear. Of course Kakashi-sensei would tell her. And she would be safe. Because he was strong.

"Will you be okay?"

He laughed, and he was twelve again, full of confidence and mischief. Then he patted her back and suddenly he was much older, and infinitely wiser than herself. He was mercurial, and amazing, and she was going to miss him like hell.

"I'll have to be, I need to keep that ero-sennin in line." He pulled back and grinned down at her, before becoming serious. "Sakura...we'll meet back here. One day. Here, in front of the gate, back in Konoha village. That's a life promise."

They both remembered his other promise, and she knew then that this sudden departure, this threat, was connected to it.

"Sas--" She couldn't say it. The name stalled on her tongue and she swallowed hard, once, twice. Their teammate was an unspoken taboo, a thread of destiny that bound them together even when apart. She cleared her throat. "Naruto, we're going to be under the same sky, you know? So...think of me." She trailed off lamely, not knowing what it was she wanted to say.

He patted her shoulder, a red tinge to his cheeks. "You too," he said.

They stepped away, the moment shattered as Jiraiya huffed through the gate. Sometimes it was hard for Sakura to take the man seriously as a shinobi. And then he'd pull some amazing stunt and she'd be shamed into remembering he was one of the most powerful ninja alive. She smiled at him.

"Take care of him," she admonished, unconsciously echoing Naruto's words from earlier.

He took her hand and kissed it, leering cheerfully down at her.

"Anything for such a--" His words were cut off by Kakashi's sudden appearance, left arm curled tight around the perverted hermit's neck, the latest in the _Icha Icha_ series held loosely in his hand.

"Sorry, Jiraiya," he deadpanned, removing his arm and stepping back. "You got in the way of my reading."

Jiraiya sputtered an apology, Sakura and Naruto laughing at his discomfort. Then suddenly they were walking, separated, and Sakura knew that things would never be the same again. Her steps slowed until she'd stopped. She didn't know what to do, what to feel. Kakashi gave her a quizzical look but she shook her head, unable to explain. And then she was running back towards the village, sandals pounding the earth.

"Oi Naruto," she hollered, watching him spin to face her, to catch her last words. "Hinata has a crush on you!"

He shook his head and cupped a hand to his ear, indicating her voice hadn't reached him. Grinning, she waved it away and bounded off to join her sensei, where together they took their first steps into the unknown future.

----

He kept a pace he knew she could stick to, and they made good time through the trees. Really, he was lucky it was Sakura he'd been saddled with, since Naruto's control was sloppy and Sasuke...well, not that he knew what he was like now, but Sasuke had always tried to pass Kakashi and take the lead. But as always, her chakra manipulation could not be faulted, and she was a silent shadow on this grim, but necessary flight.

They made camp when he judged they'd covered enough ground to do so, dropping from the branches to scout out a good spot. A stream was unnecessary this first night - their waterskins were full, and after some time they settled on a defensible overhang - a shelf of rock that jutted out low to the forest floor. Kakashi unrolled their sleeping mats and was efficiently sorting through the various cooking items when he realised Sakura had been trying to get his attention.

"Um..."

He blinked at her. It wasn't that he'd forgotten she was there, exactly, he was just so accustomed to looking after himself even when in a group. It occurred to him that this was her first time on a _real_ mission - if that's what this was - and she wasn't familiar with how to do things.

"I'm just sorting out dinner," he explained, shaking noodle mix into a pot. He emptied a spare waterskin in with it, then set it over the fire to heat.

"I'm aware of _that_." Her tone was clipped and it appeared he'd said the wrong thing.

"And...yes?"

"What I'm wondering," she continued, tone cold, "is why you're doing everything while I just sit here uselessly and watch you?"

He blinked again. She leaned over and snatched the spoon from his hand, then knelt to tend to the meal.

"Maybe," she continued, not looking at him, "you could tell me why we're on the run."

He would have been impressed by her calm demeanor were he not aware of her fragility regarding who they were facing. And while he wanted to keep her innocent - strong - a little longer, in the long run it would be safer to tell her now, when she had time to come to terms with it. Sighing, he adjusted his forehead protector, and gazed past Sakura into the trees.

"I hardly need to remind you that Orochimaru chose Sasuke as his vessel long before he made his move." He ignored her flinch at the name - which one, it didn't matter - and pressed on, covering the past in a monotone. "He placed the curse seal upon him during the chuunin exam, then retreated in order to give Sasuke time to either die and fail, or live on, and rise a hundred times stronger." He paused again - the flinch was definitely due to Sasuke. Sakura sat quietly, the only sound the gentle rasp of the spoon across the pan.

She seemed entranced by the regular, circular motions, and he cleared his throat before continuing. "And so Sasuke did live, and he was stronger, but the power would have corrupted him had it not been sealed. Yet even sealed, the anger and hate inside of him allowed the darkness to take root and grow. Sasuke existed solely to avenge his family, and he became impatient with the limits of his own power. It was...inevitable he would leave to seek out someone who could take his incredible skills and provide him with the power he thought he deserved."

The soup was in danger of bubbling over, but Sakura seemed to not see it, her eyes wide and staring at the fire beside her. Kakashi reached out and gently pried her fingers from the pan, moving it off the flames. He dished out the meal and handed her a bowl, which she held in trembling fingers.

"Orochimaru took him in, and groomed him as a worthy successor, allowing him untapped resources of power until Sasuke was ready to face Itachi. And then the two brothers met and fought, and Itachi was defeated, and Sasuke had been successful in his quest to avenge his family."

He didn't add there had been little enough of the older Uchiha left to identify the body. Sasuke had gotten his vengeance; that's all she needed to know.

"But by that time three years had passed, and Orochimaru was ready to make the transition to his new body. He demanded payment for providing Sasuke with power and skills...and took his body as his due."

Kakashi tried not to watch as a tear trickled down Sakura's cheek. He allowed himself a bitter smile and reminded himself that emotions belonged to the young. Let her cry now, while she still could.

"He took Sasuke's body," he repeated, "and transferred his soul, taking with him the knowledge and high levels of chakra he'd originally had as one of the legendary Sannin. And over the last couple of years he has tortured thousands of shinobi in his quest to master as many jutsu as he can. Now, our sources tell us he's set his sights on learning the Mangekyou Sharingan...an elite bloodline limit that can only be obtained by a member of the Uchiha clan...and only then when he kills his best friend."

The bowl fell from Sakura's nerveless fingers, and Kakashi flung out a hand to catch it, settling it carefully on the ground beside her.

"Naruto," she whispered.

"Well, yes and no," he said, pinning her with a look. "The Hokage, and indeed the Elders, are uncertain as to how precise the "friend" requirement of the limit is. You and Sasuke were close in a different way to his friendship with Naruto, which is why Tsunade deemed it safest to separate the two of you. She was also fearful the village would be a liability with both of you still there...and that's why we're here."

More tears now. He felt cruel and horrible but pushed on anyway.

"So Sakura, the choice is yours. Become strong, protect the village, protect _yourself_...or become weak and lose to Orochimaru, knowing that failing to defeat him means death for those at home. And you will face him. You will fight him. We can run but he will find us, and Jiraiya, and Naruto. What will you do?"

She stared at him, eyes damp, as if she'd never seen him before. And maybe he'd never been this open or harsh before. Truth was painful but necessary and he'd said what needed to be said.

Then, after a minute, she rubbed her eyes with the back of her sleeve. She dried her face roughly, sniffed twice, then reached out and picked up her food. Only when she started wolfing it down did he allow himself to relax, because she'd made her decision, and already she was stronger.

_And now she has a chance._


	3. Progress

Chapter Three  
Progress

For the first week, they moved at night, catching snatches of rest while the sun beat down. The first day out of Konoha, Kakashi showed her their projected journey and she traced a curious finger over a map of the Earth Country.

"Why north-west?" she asked, wanting to know the significance of their route. He smiled, then, a crinkle of one dark eye.

"I closed my eyes and pointed at the map," he explained seriously.

She clenched her fists and wondered if she was too mature to hit her teacher.

The second week, it rained. Sakura entertained the thought that perhaps they'd gone too far south and ended up in the Rain Country, but when she asked Kakashi he just looked at her and she felt very foolish.

They continued, albeit slowly, despite the rain, taking a break only after Sakura landed awkwardly and nearly fell from a tree. He must have sensed her lack of balance, because one moment her foot twisted beneath her and she noticed with a detached surprise that the forest floor was coming up to meet her _awfully _fast; and then the next strong arms were depositing her safely on the ground.

Sakura was struck once more by the familiar feeling of uselessness, and it took all of her self-control to mutter an ungracious thanks.

The next day Kakashi deemed them far enough from the village to decrease their pace, and she took that as an opening to request daily training sessions. With the pressure off them to travel with haste, they'd have more time to do other things, and if matters were as bad as he'd led her to believe she was going to need to be prepared.

If he was surprised, he didn't show it. Instead, he agreed.

----

He was, Kakashi realised, a failure as a teacher. It was a good thing he'd refused to pass all those other genin groups, because if the members of Team 7 had any skills at all, it certainly wasn't because of him.

No wonder they'd all gone off to seek power in their own ways.

If he'd felt shame at his neglect of Naruto, the way he'd inadvertently ignored Sakura filled him with disgust. She'd been the girl, the weakest link; her head was filled with silliness and Sasuke. So he'd left her alone to grow up and out of it, and then the unluckiest woman in the world had come along, and had seen her potential. The potential the great, observant Copy Nin had managed to overlook.

Because Sakura...well, Sakura was good. Not as good as him - she was just a chuunin, after all. But her attacks were no longer hesitant and unfocused. She moved fluidly, purposefully, and had a surprising arsenal of moves.

Although, he wished Tsunade hadn't taught her that super strength thing.

So they sparred, and exercised, and fought till they dropped, and it was some time during the third week that she asked him for more.

----

"Kakashi-sensei," she started, suppressing with much difficulty the urge to look away and twirl hair around her finger. He didn't make her nervous - much - but the idea of asking a favour from a jounin intimidated her a bit. _I need to take a few lessons from Tsunade-san about this. I bet _nothing_ has ever intimidated her._

He was silent, but she knew he was listening. He'd been reticent ever since explaining the details of their leaving, and she couldn't say she blamed him.

Not that anything he had said surprised her, truly. In her heart of hearts, she'd known what the outcome of Sasuke's journey would be. That was why she'd begged him to take her with him. Selfishly she'd considered herself able to help him, as if her presence would bring him back from the brink.

It had been too late, even then. Sasuke's heart was filled with darkness, and she'd been a fool to think there had been room in there for her.

"I am strong." Her voice surprised her. It was firm and resounded with conviction. She believed this, she knew this, and suddenly it was all going to work. "I have strength, and control, and power. But I need skills. Jutsus. Tricks and plans."

She grabbed his hand because it seemed like the right thing to do.

"So teach me, Copy Ninja Kakashi of Konoha village." She grinned at him. "He of the thousand-and-one jutsus. Don't be stingy and share the knowledge."

He laughed then, a low chuckle that startled her. The sound brought a strange warmth to her chest, because neither of them had laughed in what seemed like a very long time.

For a moment she forgot what they were doing, why they were here, but then the sun broke through the cloud cover overhead and memory returned like a sharp pain.

"When you put it like that, how can I refuse?" Kakashi's tone was dry and she returned her attention to him, belatedly realising she'd gotten her way. Another grin split her features and she pulled him to his feet, dragging him up by their still-joined hands.

"All right!" Punching the air, she dropped his arm, then went to stand a way down the clearing. Determined, she faced him, tightening her forehead protector. Her eyes were dry and felt unusually hard, but she welcomed the focus.

"I'm ready."

----

The years of practice in front of the mirror had paid off, Kakashi decided, his voice low but carrying effortlessly across to Sakura as he explained the first jutsu.

It was a simple genjutsu, a technique that fooled the enemy into thinking you were slower than you really were. It was one he favoured, since his own speed was not unremarkable, and many an enemy-nin had died astonished at the distance he covered in what seemed like an instant.

The technique unsettled his opponents, and that was how he liked them to be.

"The crow," he said, naming each seal as he went through the motions. "The bear, the tiger, the bull, the snake."

He could see her watching, taking in the fluid hand motions. Then she settled into a defensive combat position as he started running toward her. Shuriken slipped down between her fingers, her head turning to follow his movement. And then she gasped as the tip of a kunai pressed against her neck, held from behind by her teacher.

"Impressive," she choked.

"The aim," he continued as if nothing had happened, "is to confuse your opponent. They will _think_ they _know_, but you will show them they know nothing. And in that moment of confusion, you will strike."

Infinitesimally, he increased the pressure of the kunai. He felt Sakura hold her breath. Then he stepped back and it was her turn.

----

"_Kumokasumi Senko no Jutsu_!" Sakura's voice cracked on the last syllable, but she ignored the exhaustion and pushed off, trying to get a good runup. They'd been doing this for days, and she was still unable to fully grasp the technique.

She had a good feeling about this time.

Digging deep into her remaining store of energy, she moulded her chakra into a thin layer across her skin, concentrating a pool of condensed chakra at the sole of each foot. Taking a deep breath, she _shifted_, pushing sideways, air rushing past her at an impossible speed. She felt rather than heard it whistle indignantly as she pushed again, repositioning her body even before landing.

Colours blurred around her and time ground to a halt as she flew, she _inched _closer to where Kakashi stood, apparently immersed in a book. Knowing just which book it was contributed to the grim satisfaction that overcame her as she whipped out a kunai, floating over and around him, before turning and slicing down...

...only to have the blade stopped, a whisper from his neck, trapped easily between two fingers without him even giving her the courtesy of looking up from _Icha Icha Paradise._

"Better," he said, releasing the kunai to lick his finger and turn a page.

Incensed, but too tired to lash out physically, she contented herself with concocting elaborate schemes in her head where Kakashi begged forgiveness for his cruel and indifferent treatment. Smiling evilly, she recovered enough to give him a very rude gesture behind his back.

"I saw that."

Suddenly it didn't matter. She hadn't succeeded yet but she'd come close and the improvement gave her access to stores of energy she'd never known she had. Her body felt more alive than ever before. Chakra seemed to sizzle across her flesh and simmer beneath the skin, while her bones felt both too heavy and yet incredibly light. Her hair crackled, and her senses were almost brutally aware.

This feeling...this awareness...this was the way of the ninja. She wondered distantly if this was how Naruto felt all the time and a newfound respect for him was filed away for later.

And then she was moving, if she could call it that. Moving was such an inadequate term. To describe her current speed as merely _moving_ was to compare a teardrop to the ocean. Instead, it was like she'd found a tear in the fabric of the world and managed to slip inside. Now she was one with the dirt and the trees, with the birds and the clouds and the sun and the air. Tunnel vision took over her eyes, the peripheries melting until all she could see was Kakashi.

He'd glanced up, at least. He was looking towards her but Sakura felt heady in the sudden fierce knowledge that _he couldn't see her._

Sensation filled her. A kind of giddy joy took precedence - no technique had ever clicked this way, nothing had ever felt so right. In the past, if at first she hadn't succeeded, she'd tried again, and eventually her mind and muscles sorted things out. But this sense of completion came only with mastery, and right now, she knew she was level with Kakashi.

A thought proved an instant later, when she stood behind him. He stiffened, taken unaware.

"Where's the kunai?"

She laughed. "I don't need it." She tapped him on the back of the head with _Icha Icha Paradise_, and she heard his sharp intake of breath. Then his shoulders relaxed and a moment later he was gone.

Shading her eyes, she found him perched in a nearby tree, the book once more in his possession.

"It looks like you have a handle of the basics with that one." His words weren't all that encouraging, but the barest hint of praise from Kakashi had always been more gratifying than gushing admiration from others. She beamed up at him, exhaustion forgotten.

"Again."

She was already off the ground.

----

Kakashi sighed as a small arm pulled tight across his throat, squeezing his windpipe. He stood there for a moment, acknowledging the point, then ducked out from her reach and turned to regard his pupil.

Sakura was exceeding all expectations. Older now, and away from the often trying presence of Naruto, she worked hard without distractions, and had just successfully completed the twelfth jutsu of their renewed training.

Without a mission log, he'd lost track of time, but he estimated they'd been out of Konoha for close to three months. For Sakura to have made this kind of progress in such a short time was nothing short of amazing. Gone was the over-emotional girl who let her teammates do all the work. In her place stood a powerful kunoichi who was inching closer to jounin level skills. He made a mental note to enter her in the next jounin examination when they returned.

If they returned.

Refusing to dwell on such negative thoughts, he realised Sakura was waiting for him to comment on her performance of the jutsu. He reached out and ruffled her hair, a throwback to the early days of Team 7. It was a gesture meant to convey affection, but for some reason doing it now reminded him of Jiraiya leering down at her when they'd left, and he pulled his hand back as if burnt.

Sakura appeared to not have noticed, too caught up in her accomplishment. Panting heavily from the exertion required to get him off guard, she gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up, which he found himself returning, quashing his strange thoughts of a moment ago.

"I think that's enough for today, don't you?"

"Un." She nodded, still out of breath. They'd work on her stamina tomorrow, he decided, but for now they'd both earned some rest. He walked over to the pack and began sorting through it. By unspoken agreement this served as the cue for Sakura to gather firewood, and she promptly disappeared to do so.

Really, this exile was a comfortable arrangement. So much so that sometimes he even forgot why they were here. But such lapses of memory were selfish and distracted him from the task at hand, which was, of course, to protect Sakura.

_Ah, Tsunade. It's a shame your skill for reading people doesn't extend to the card table, because you sure know a sucker when you see one. _

Not that he supposed his sense of duty was in any way a secret. The Hokage hadn't taken a gamble at all, entrusting Sakura to his care. She'd known he'd protect her with his own life.

His fingers brushed the scroll Tsunade had handed him before leaving.

His own life, indeed.

_"Kakashi!"_

_He'd just left Sakura's home and was heading for his own when Tsunade stopped him. He paused on the roof of the bakery and waited for her to catch up. _

_She landed, a tad unsteadily. "You've spoken to Sakura?" Her voice was brisk, and he knew better than to mention her graceless entry._

_He nodded. "She wanted to say goodbye to a couple of friends, and as I planned to leave this evening anyway, I didn't consider it a problem." His tone was questioning, but the Hokage waved it off._

_"No, whatever suits you best. I just needed to give you this before you left." She reached inside her shirt and pulled out a small black scroll._

_He felt his eyebrows rise and could barely keep the surprise from his voice. "That is --"_

_"Yes." She cut him off. They both knew its significance. "_Kamikaze no jutsu." _Her whisper was faint, pained. "Promise me...it's too much to ask, and yet I must. Promise me you'll use it if you're truly in danger of being taken by Orochimaru."_

_No trace of hesitation this time. Her eyes were pleading. "The sacrifice would be terrible, but if he were to gain even more power..." Pale, she seemed at a loss for words, unable to continue. Before he could stop himself he was stepping forward and taking the scroll._

_"I understand," he said, and he did. To use this would be an honour, a privilege. And maybe it was his destiny. Maybe he'd be seeing Obito and Rin sooner than he thought._

_Nodding once to the Hokage, he tensed his muscles and leapt, continuing home. A serenity he hadn't felt in a very long time washed over him like a soothing balm._

_He could do this. He _would. _Because now he knew what was at stake._

Sakura interrupted his reverie with her return to the camp, arms bristling with sticks and twigs.

"No dead trees," she said, explaining the absence of logs. It didn't seem to worry her, and she set about building up a suitable fire, humming under her breath while wrestling with the branches.

He noticed the scroll was still in his hand, and returned it hastily to the pack before Sakura could see it. He didn't feel up to explanations tonight.

---

Later, they ate the last of the pack mix dinner with bored expressions until Sakura stiffened and looked around. He stirred his soup and watched her out of the corner of his eye, waiting until she asked casually how many packets of the _surprise_ noodle mix were left.

He closed his eyes and stilled his chakra, arcing it out in all directions, unsurprised with what he sensed. He counted silently then gave her a level stare.

"_Eight_, last time I checked."

She nodded, her eyes bright. She licked her lips before querying him again.

"And which _direction_ would the nearest store be, do you think?" Her voice was light, careless.

He blew at the steam coming from his bowl. "I'd suggest _north."_

She jumped to her feet and busied herself with setting out the bedrolls. Once they'd been laid out, Kakashi doused the campfire. They wasted time with frivolities and Sakura was particularly vocal about brushing all the twigs away from her sleeping place. Then, to all intents and purposes, they settled down for the night, the silence punctuated only by the occasional hiss of steam from the fire pit.

For safety's sake, he made them wait for what seemed like an eternity, then gave Sakura the signal. In a puff of _Kawarimi no Jutsu_, they reappeared on a tree branch north of their sleeping "bodies". He could tell she was bursting to ask him questions, but the who and why could wait until later.

The eight enemy-nin concealed around them drew closer. They remained where they were, watching and waiting.

It was going to be a long night.

------------

-------

--

Notes on Jutsus:

_Kumokasumi Senko no Jutsu_: a Jutsu of my own creation. Its name translates to something along the lines of "Disappearing Flash Technique". The more advanced technique Kakashi uses in Naruto canon is the _Shunshin no Jutsu_, which in turn is inferior to the _Hiraishin no Jutsu_, a technique used only by the Yondaime Hokage.

_Kawarimi no Jutsu_: Replacement Technique. The ninja replaces his or her own body with something (usually a log) and so avoids being injured.

_Kamikaze no Jutsu_: We-ll...it should be obvious, and I really don't want to explain yet. We'll save that for later, shall we? ;)


	4. Pressure

Chapter Four  
Pressure

The ambush came close to dawn. Sakura was attempting a stealthy scratch at the side of her nose when Kakashi's hand came out of nowhere to halt her movement. His head tilted almost imperceptibly to the camp and she blinked her understanding.

It was time.

She crouched lower on the branch, ready to spring off as soon as their attackers revealed themselves. Her muscles protested after the long night of inactivity but she ignored the aching and focussed her chakra, sending it to settle in anticipation at her hands and feet. The shadowed humps of their replaced forms lay innocent and untouched below them, but she knew it wouldn't be long now.

They struck.

A flicker betrayed the enemy's position, and she was off, ignoring Kakashi's startled, "Wait!"

Sure, she didn't know why they were here, but if their intentions were friendly, why hadn't they just made themselves known? Secrecy was duplicity, and Sakura had no intention of learning too late why the nin had followed them.

She shimmered from branch to branch, putting to practice the _Kumokasumi Senko no Jutsu_. Kakashi had yet to teach her its more advanced counterpart, the one he used to apparently teleport from place to place. He said she wasn't ready - and it _did_ use a lot of chakra - but she was a little angry he didn't think she was up to it. _I'll show him,_ she thought fiercely, touching down on the hard-packed earth just as the first of the other nin deigned to make an appearance.

----

Kakashi scowled after Sakura as she vanished, apparently too impatient to wait until after the other nin showed their hand. He'd planned for the two of them to bide their time until the enemy uncovered their log replacement bodies, and then strike in that second of astonishment while their guards were down.

Sakura had effectively ruined that plan, and he calculated alternatives as fast as he could. A few seconds and countless scenarios later, he sighed.

The new idea involved Sakura staying down there for a little longer. The other shinobi had been watching them all night and possibly longer; when they discovered she was fighting alone, they'd become distracted and unsettled, wondering when he'd appear to launch his own attack.

He liked them unsettled. An unsettled enemy was more susceptible to the Sharingan.

Slowly, he slid his forehead protector up from where it folded over his left eye. He blinked, then looked down at where Sakura had pressed against the bole of a giant oak. Shuriken winked from between her fingers, and he realised the sun had come up.

As if the light had been a signal, the first one appeared from its hiding place atop a neighbouring tree to Sakura's. They dropped soundlessly next to the rolled up "Kakashi", and using the momentum from their downward leap, drove a kunai into his "body" right where his heart would have been.

He winced in sympathy for his poor replacement, and noted with satisfaction that Sakura's attack coincided with the moment of understanding for the enemy-nin.

A low grunt - her shuriken had met their mark. The wounded shinobi retreated as Sakura moved hastily to another spot; now that her position was known, she'd make an easy target.

A fuuma shuriken thudded dully against the tree trunk where she had been standing, and he approved her quick thinking. A second later and she could have been seriously injured.

He waited for the rest of the group to show themselves. Now that their trick had been uncovered, neither side had the advantage. He was confident, however, and he had a strong feeling that what the others had expected to be an easy enough assassination was going to prove to be anything but.

----

_That was close._ Sakura fought to keep her breathing even as she moved quickly to a different hiding place. She snuck a look down and felt queasy when she saw the fuuma shuriken still reverberating slightly from impact.

And dammit, where was Kakashi? She hoped he wasn't deliberately allowing her to face them on her own just because she'd started without him. And maybe she should have bowed to his experience - he was a jounin _and_ he had the Sharingan - but something rebellious inside of her had demanded she go down there and get ready for battle.

Now one was wounded, but Kakashi had said earlier that he could sense eight.

_Where are the rest of you?_

She was quite proud of her coded words from the night before. She'd been soothing one of her fingers after it had been burnt on the pot, washing it over with chakra, when something had brushed the edge of her senses. She'd stopped and strained for another touch, but none were forthcoming. Knowing her teacher's skill with looking under the underneath, she'd said the first thing she could think of, and miraculously he'd understood.

It was good she was here with Kakashi, because Naruto would have taken her words at face value and become depressed that their supplies were running low.

She spared a thought for her teammate while she waited breathlessly for the next attack. How was he? Where had Jiraiya taken him? Were they fighting enemy-nin as well, or was that a special privilege reserved only for Kakashi and herself?

Her vision blurred. _Oh no you don't. _

"Kai!" Her hands came together in a flurry of seals and she dismissed the weak genjutsu. No student of Kakashi's got very far without learning at least the basics of discerning mind attacks, and this one had been nowhere near as subtle as what she was used to facing.

A rustle from her left. Stupidly she looked towards the sound; it was her own fault when the shinobi appeared from her right, slicing down with a kunai. She pushed herself sideways off the branch, evading the strike by a hairsbreadth, and shoved off the tree trunk. Chakra boosted the jump and she made it to another tree, where a second nin was waiting.

Sakura dodged again, reaching into her hip pack for more shuriken. She flung them in all directions without really aiming, and took the moment they breached the air to glance about quickly for some sign of her teacher.

She spotted him a few trees down, where he was watching the scene unfold with apparent interest. Catching her look he lifted his hand in a lazy wave.

"Some help!" she ground out, _shifting_ from one tree to another in an effort to shake the two nins from her tail.

He seemed about to answer when a ball of flame engulfed the tree from behind him, and he disappeared from sight as the branch he'd been perched on was reduced to ash.

_At least we know they're serious_, Sakura thought, readying herself for another set of seals. _I guess that means I can be too._

----

Kakashi reappeared on the ground just as a high-pitched keening filled the air and he smiled grimly. Nice to see Sakura was using the techniques he'd taught her. The one she was doing now was a particularly nasty ninjutsu that used pockets of wind to beat an opponent senseless. The air was kept firm and hard-packed, so enemies were bruised and battered without ever being scratched, and he liked it because it was rather tidy as most attacks went.

She seemed to have things under control up above; he supposed it was up to him to take care of the ground below.

Leaning against a tree trunk, he feigned boredom. Sakura had two with her, which left six. He knew that one was injured, but to assume injuries eliminated an opponent was to welcome death with open arms.

Only eight nin. Whoever sent them had seriously underestimated them both.

He scanned the area surreptitiously with the Sharingan. There were four in his immediate vicinity, all of them tensed and poised for combat. He wondered what they were waiting for...unless...

He glanced casually at the ground.

Sun-bleached leaves littered the forest floor, edges crisp. There was seemingly no pattern to their layout, nothing too obvious that indicated he was standing in front of a trap...except that above, the tree branches twined together in a tightly woven canopy. No sun had reached this area in years.

He took a step forward and sensed their anticipation. Then he was watching from above as his body was riddled with shuriken.

The four enemy-nin burst from their hiding spots, ready to finish the kill. The smoke faded and he could imagine their chagrin at finding _another_ log where his corpse should be.

Feeling rather sorry for them, he dropped down between a pair of them and slung an arm around each of their necks.

"Don't take it personally," he said, almost kindly, "but I'm pretty hard to kill."

Then he smashed their heads together and let their bodies plop to the ground.

He looked up at the other two. They seemed immobile, frozen with shock - or perhaps fear. The Sharingan burned, a crimson wheel that trapped them in its depths.

----

Above, Sakura was finding her pursuers to be nothing if not persistent. She'd checked to see how many Kakashi had on him, and had concluded there were two missing. She expected they'd allocate more ninja to the most powerful opponent, so it was probably safe to assume that two was all she was getting.

All the more reason to ditch these guys and go help Kakashi. Not that an elite jounin of Konoha village _needed _the help of a chuunin...but she felt a bit insulted that she'd been allocated a measly one-fourth of the enemy numbers, and now she wanted to teach them that they'd seriously underestimated Haruno Sakura.

"_Bunshin no Jutsu!"_ An oldie, but a goodie. Naruto showed over and over that the simplest techniques were often the hardest to defend against. She was frugal with her chakra, creating only two clones, but they followed her mental directions and immediately rounded on the enemy, who in turn were forced to alter their movements.

The moment's surprise was enough - with the last of her shuriken she pinned them to opposite trees. Her shadow clones disappeared, their job of distraction done, and she landed on a nearby branch to survey her handiwork.

Yes, they were trapped quite effectively. But now, what to do with them? She could go and help Kakashi, but she rather doubted that shinobi forced to endure an all-night stakeout would have enough patience left over to just sit there and wait for her return.

On the other hand, however, she had no real way of obtaining information from them. She could probably threaten them till she was blue in the face and they still wouldn't talk.

But - oh well. Only one way to find out.

"So." She dimpled at them, wanting to appear cordial. Ino had always said that customers were more willing to spend money at the place with the friendliest shop assistants. As the Yamanakas boasted a monopoly on the floristry market, Sakura had never really been interested in her friend's observations, but she supposed it couldn't hurt to try.

"Which one of you wants to answer a few questions? It won't take too long - oh, unless you have somewhere else to be?"

Considering she had them pinned helplessly to a tree, Sakura wondered if that was perhaps a little too cruel. Then she decided she didn't care, since in all likelihood they'd been sent here to kill her.

Neither nin seemed very forthcoming, so she sighed dramatically, cracking her knuckles.

"I _really_ don't want to hurt you, but I will if you make me. Or maybe you don't think I can?"

She took a deep breath and sent a silent apology to the tree she was standing next to. Then she readied her chakra and punched it as hard as she could.

The wood splintered. Veins of chakra spiralled up the trunk and burrowed through the timber, bark shredding and crumbling away in the wake of her power.

It was all rather impressive, and she stood back, admiring the show when an ominous creaking filled the air. She had enough time for her smug expression to change into one of horror before one section of the tree split entirely from the other, and she could only watch it fall in slow motion, moving as if through syrup.

She leapt aside, well clear of its path, and covered her face as it crashed to the ground, scraping along a tree opposite her. She breathed a sigh of relief when it finally settled among the brush, then lowered her hands.

All right, she was fine. Her little display hadn't gone entirely as planned, but hopefully her captured nins were quaking in their sandals. She turned to see how they'd taken it all --

-- only to find them both trapped under a big piece of tree.

_Aw, man._ She picked her way through the debris to check their condition - a quick inspection showed they were still breathing, merely unconscious. Her medical training led her to expect they'd be out of it for another couple of hours at least, and she took the time to remove their masks and see whom she was facing.

They wore no forehead protectors, but she hadn't expected they would. Attacking by stealth didn't generally call for allegiance to be displayed. Their faces were unremarkable with no particular racial characteristics - all in all, they looked like any nin she'd ever known. They could have come from Konoha itself, and she'd be none the wiser.

Leaving them splayed under the branch, she went to rejoin her teacher, mulling over the attack. On one hand, she thought she'd done quite well to disarm the nin in the first place...but on the other, she wasn't looking forward to explaining just how she'd managed to knock them both out.

----

Kakashi brushed the soil off his vest. _Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu_ was an effective technique, but it was one that required him to get his hands - and clothes - rather dirty. It was a small price to pay for such a useful jutsu, and he employed it whenever he wanted answers fast, since the indignity (and discomfort) at being buried neck deep in the ground usually loosened enemy tongues.

He'd adjusted his forehead protector once again and was about to give them a bit of "encouragement" when Sakura came crashing through the undergrowth with all the stealth of a small elephant.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she cried upon seeing him, manuevering past the visible heads of his buried opponents without giving them a second glance. "I did it! You should have seen me, I got those nin so bad they didn't know what hit them."

"Good," he replied, wavering between pride and irritation. He was satisfied she'd been able to hold her own against the enemy-nin, but it was suddenly apparent Naruto's legacy lived on, if this was how Sakura acted after every successful battle.

Funny, he'd thought she'd become more mature these last couple of months. But then again, not everyone was like he'd been at seventeen - old and weary, angry at the world and what it dished out to those least deserving of it. He dismissed her sudden juvenile excitement as an extreme reaction; no doubt exhilaration at her win had made her forget their situation.

No matter, he'd talk to her about it after getting information from his captive audience. He moved to continue with his questioning only to be stopped again by Sakura, this time as she stepped forward and flung her arms around him.

He froze.

She pressed her face into the front of his vest, nosing in between the two sets of scroll pockets, then fisted her hands into the material at the back. She was trembling, her shoulders shaking, and it took him a while to get over the shock of this unexpected embrace to realise she was crying.

"I killed them," she whispered, a broken edge to her voice. "I killed them, and I wanted to make it all right, but it's not all right, they're dead and I killed them and it hurts!"

Her sobbing was louder now, and he understood belatedly she was unnerved from her first kill, and her emotions hadn't been able to decide how to deal with it. She was seesawing - at first, intense excitement; and now the harsh reality, heavy-hearted horror.

Awkwardly, Kakashi brought his hands up and returned the hug, patting the back of her head. Strands of her hair caught on his strangely sweaty palms. He stared at them so he'd have somewhere to look, because this was uncomfortable and unfamiliar and he almost really liked it.

And then none of it mattered because she'd pulled a kunai from her leg pack and stabbed him in the back.

She backflipped instantly, springing away almost before he knew what had happened. The wound felt both hot and cold and he had a dizzying suspicion the blade had been poisoned - his chakra was retreating from the point of contact and creeping back towards his core. Ignoring the pain, he forced his fingers to move sluggishly, creating a quick seal that he pressed over the entry point, stretching an arm with difficulty across his shoulder and onto his back. He blinked experimentally, but his eyesight seemed as yet untouched, then looked up, giving her a level stare.

"You're not Sakura." _Obviously. _It wasn't a question but he was curious as the Sharingan had betrayed nothing. Even now it whirred and deliberated, scanning her body. It saw her, and through her, and still it told him only what it felt was truth - that this was really Sakura.

She smirked, the gesture both familiar and alien. "Are you sure about that?"

He closed his left eye. "Yes."

Now she laughed, and it was Sakura's laugh. The sound caught at his chest and he was finally angry this person had managed to fool him, and it was all he could do to bite back a volley of questions. He settled for just one.

"How?"

It really should have been _why_ but for once curiosity got the better of him - a genjutsu that had tricked his Sharingan was one to fear. The imposter smirked again before yawning loudly, as if his very existence bored her.

"Perhaps you've heard of _Shoten no Jutsu?_"

The name rang a bell, but he couldn't place it. Shrugging casually, he ignored the spreading pain in his shoulder. "Can't say that I have."

Her smile widened. "Oh, but that's even better. Why don't we leave it at that, then? It's always awkward to meet someone when you're wearing their face, and I can hear your little tagalong coming back now. She's almost pretty, isn't she?"

Appreciatively, she ran a hand over her chest and waist, then flicked out her hair. He bit his lip.

She eyed him speculatively. "Yes..." she murmured, almost to herself.

Then she seemed to remember something, and continued brightly. "But yes, I must be off now. Don't worry, I'll be taking my mess with me. Until we meet again, Hatake Kakashi. And I can assure you - we _will_ meet again."

With a shimmer, she disappeared. He noted distantly that the two enemy-nin he'd put away for later had vanished as well.

The dizziness was stronger now - maybe it would be better if he wasn't so far off the ground. He knelt carefully, but it didn't seem to make much difference and he was puzzling out what benefits _lying_ on the ground might bring him when Sakura landed beside him.

He heard her gasp as if from a great distance, and turned his strangely hazy vision in her direction.

"Is that you?" he heard himself asking. He didn't hear her answer, but he really hoped it was, because he didn't think he was up to fighting again.

Then a blessed numbness enveloped him and the world faded to black.

---------

-----

--

Notes on Jutsus:

_Kumokasumi Senko no Jutsu_: as mentioned previously, an original jutsu that allows the user to move faster than an enemy's perception, fooling their senses.

_Bunshin no Jutsu: _Replication Technique. A simple jutsu whereby the user creates one or more clones of themselves. In Sakura's case, used to surprise her pursuers. These clones cannot do any damage.

_Kai:_ Dispel. The user can dismiss a genjutsu by focussing their chakra and breaking out of the illusion.

_Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu_: "Double Suicide Decapitation Technique" (Thanks, wikipedia!). Kakashi uses this to come up from the ground and swap places with his opponent, effectively trapping most of their body below ground.

_Shoten no Jutsu:_ Shapeshifting Technique. Requiring the use of a sacrifice; the user can create a clone of another person that **_cannot be seen through by the Sharingan_**.

Thanks to everyone who's been following the story so far, I appreciate you taking the time to read, and I hope you're enjoying it. Comments and criticisms (especially spelling errors - I don't have Word and WordPad doesn't have spellcheck) are always appreciated, so drop me a line and let me know how you're finding it.

Special thanks to DarkenedSakura for having the patience to go through these chapters sometimes several times before release; and also to Magus, who knows nothing about Naruto but reads this anyway.


	5. Healing

Chapter Five  
Healing

For a moment she thought he was dead and it was like the world had caved in around her, dwindling in size until all it encompassed was the clearing, Kakashi and herself. A hundred scenarios flashed past her eyes and each one ended up in tragedy because he wasn't there to protect her, wasn't there to make her strong.

Then his chest rose and fell. Tears she didn't know were there spilled over as she reached out a shaking hand, hesitating before laying her palm against his masked face.

She snatched it back - he was burning up! Horrified she began the methodical check for wounds, but nothing was apparent on the front of his body. She gathered him up gently and tensed when her gloved hand came away from his shoulder slick with blood.

Carefully she rolled him onto his side in order to examine the cause of the bleeding. It was hard to tell exactly what had happened as the cut edges of his flak vest had adhered themselves together with congealed blood, but as far as she could see the entry point of what she assumed was a kunai was fairly small. To have rendered Kakashi unconscious with such an ignominious wound left only a few possibilities, and she didn't like any of them.

The attack had unnerved her. It hadn't been entirely unexpected, but the targeting of Kakashi was something that confused her still. Orochimaru was only seeking her and Naruto, wasn't he? She conceded that Kakashi had been their teacher but it wasn't a relationship she would immediately class as friendship, and even though he'd mentored Sasuke in the use of the Sharingan and Chidori it was quite a leap...

She shook her head. Such thoughts could wait. First, she needed to clean the wound. There was no room for guesswork in the role of a medic-nin and this time she was doubly frantic because this was Kakashi - her teacher, her teammate, and her friend.

And the only question remained: how exactly was she to do this?

----

Kakashi was lulled out of unconsciousness by a sense of swaying. He also ached all over, and his limbs felt alternately floppy and stiff. Sluggish memory returned, and with it came worry. What had happened to --

"Sakura?" It was meant to be an almost-shout but all that came out was a sleepy mumble. The swaying stopped and he felt himself being shifted slightly, the movement accompanied by a muttered curse.

"You're heavy, you know that?" Her voice was flippant but he could hear an undertone of distress. "Anyway, don't talk. We're nearly at the stream, I can have a look at you there and we'll get you all patched up."

She sounded optimistic, so he took that as a good sign and opened his eyes.

Light near-blinded him. It took a few tries before he managed to keep his eyes open, but when he could he surveyed their surroundings with interest. Lifting his head still presented too much of a challenge, so from his sideways view he came to the conclusion he was being carried over Sakura's shoulders, slung across her neck like a side of beef. She gripped both his right arm and leg, letting his left side dangle freely, stopping his wound from being pulled too much.

The trees had thinned - it appeared they were nearing the edge of the forest. Judging by the sun's position high overhead, it was nearly noon, and he realised this meant Sakura had to have been carrying him for hours. He processed this slowly, along with her words.

"Stream?" Ah, that was better. He sounded more coherent now. Maybe next time his questions would graduate to two words.

"Yeah," she panted. "I sent a Kage Bunshin to scout out ahead. She reported a stream to the north-east and a town to the north-west." She paused to heave him forward slightly. "Well, the stream becomes a river, and the river runs through the township, but we're heading to the source."

Kakashi listened to her explanation with one ear. He wondered if it was unseemly to be carried on the back of a seventeen-year-old girl. Sure, he'd been injured, but it couldn't have been anything bad enough to warrant this annoying display of weakness.

"Sakura," he said, inwardly pleased with how strong his voice sounded this time, "you can put me down now."

She laughed. "I don't think so. I've given your wound a basic check, and that's no ordinary kunai injury. Somehow whoever gave it to you imbued the blade with a malevolent jutsu, and their chakra has almost poisoned you."

"No, really," he insisted, pushing ineffectively at her arm, "I feel fine." That was an enormous untruth, but she didn't have to know.

"Liar!" she scolded him, much as she and Naruto had done when they were younger, and he'd given them yet another excuse as to why he was late.

"I'm really--"

"We're here!" She cut off his last protest and he could feel her increase their speed, renewed strength giving her power now that they'd reached their destination. The loamy soil of the forest gave way to a rocky streambed, while the thinning trees finally did as they'd been threatening to and disappeared altogether.

Her sandalled feet crunched across the gravel, and then with a grunt, he was being lowered painstakingly to the ground. She raised his shoulders so he was sitting, then rocked back on her haunches and surveyed him worriedly.

"Hmmm," was all she said before she was on her feet again, rummaging around in her hip pack for medical supplies. "Now take off your vest," she ordered, withdrawing strips of gauze and a palm-sized basin from the pack. She moved off without looking at him and went to crouch at the edge of the stream, where she rinsed the bandages and filled the basin.

He was slow to oblige. Sakura must have been feeding him a trickle of her chakra while she'd been carrying him - now that they were no longer touching the intensity of the pain had increased tenfold. His back felt tender, while the wound itself felt like a mix of old and new aches, as if he'd been branded and his skin wasn't sure how to react.

His hands were shaky as they fumbled with his vest, and he was absurdly relieved when Sakura returned and wordlessly took over. She knelt before him, laying the vest neatly to the side and frowning at his undershirt.

"Do you have a spare shirt?" she asked, fingering her kunai pouch almost nervously. He nodded and she looked relieved. "Oh, good. Because the blood has set, it's going to be easier if I just cut your shirt off."

There was humour in this situation, he knew it. But the ache in his shoulder was growing lazily, a fiery spiral of pain that threatened to take over his whole body.

"Go ahead," he said tonelessly, thinking how ironic it would be if this wasn't Sakura. If that person from earlier had decided to come back and finish him off. He was weak, wounded and she had him at her mercy. How Obito would laugh when they met up again, and he'd be forced to explain he'd been done in at the trusted hands of a young girl.

By this time she'd crawled behind him, and he tensed involuntarily as her kunai sliced down, starting at the top of his neck and shearing through his mask. It then traced along his spine, fabric sloughing sideways in its wake. She worked quickly, cutting out and leaving a patch of shirt where it was still glued to his skin. Sure hands guided him out of the sleeves and when she'd removed him as best she could from the garment, she sat back, clapping her hands together with a small sound of satisfaction.

"Right, now we can -- oh!" She broke off and leaned forward, an intrigued expression on her face. "Your ANBU tattoo," she breathed, moving closer to the mark emblazoned on his left bicep.

"May I?"

He shrugged, and she reached out, tracing the scarlet whorls with a child's curiosity. _Which is only natural, since she _is_ still a child._ He kept his face impassive, but it was a struggle to suppress a shiver at her gentle, curious touch. He didn't get touched very often, and a small part of him wondered if lack of physical contact made one extra-sensitive...while another part noted absently that it really was rather warm.

He went to breathe and the air caught in his throat. The sound seemed to remind Sakura of the task at hand and she pulled her hand away.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei!" she said, picking up the basin.

"Don't call me that." She started at his abrupt response, spilling water all over her leg. He ignored her probable confusion, and thought instead of the enemy they were facing. What a terrible skill, to use comrades against each other. He had enough faith in his own abilities to know that had the enemy-nin not beguiled him with Sakura's face, he wouldn't be injured now.

_Never again_, he swore to himself. _Never again will I believe in an illusion._

"Then...what should I call you?" Her voice was small and he felt a twinge of guilt for snapping at her when she'd just carried him halfway across the countryside.

"Whatever you want." He didn't care. Anything that wouldn't remind him of the time an enemy caught him, weak in a moment of his own creation.

_I have no special people_, he told himself like a mantra. _And I won't be caught like that again._

----

Sakura refilled the basin, surprised at Kakashi's sudden vehemence. And it _was_ sudden - he didn't have a problem with being called "sensei" last night.

Unless...unless he was angry with her? She'd acted impulsively during the fight; maybe he didn't consider her fit to be his student any longer. The idea pained her, but Inner Sakura rallied instantly, daring her to prove him wrong if that was the case.

She steadied the basin, along with her nerves, and walked back. Pulling a medic pad from her supply pack, she knelt behind Kakashi and started sponging gently at the piece of shirt still stuck to his back. She explained what she was doing while she worked, something Tsunade-san did to soothe the patient.

"I need to wet the cloth and skin before I pull this last bit off," she said quietly as she went along, "because I'd tear the wound and possibly worsen it if I just pulled it straight off."

He said nothing, his shoulders stiff. She noticed with belated surprise that he wore nothing above the waist. _Of course he's not wearing anything...I just cut his shirt off!_ But she'd been deep in professional-mode at the time, and now that she was free to think about it, it occurred to her that this was her childhood fantasy fulfilled.

Her cheeks burned and she amended hastily to herself that more specifically, seeing Kakashi without his mask was something she'd always wanted in her younger days. She remembered the escapades Naruto had convinced her to join him in, and how she'd feigned reluctance when really she'd been just as curious as her teammate.

And now...

"What's wrong?" Kakashi intruded into her thoughts and her flush deepened.

"N-nothing," she stammered, wiping faster. "Umm, I think I can pull it off without it sticking now."

He gave a curt nod and she worked the edges of the cloth free before pulling it down slowly. It came away from his skin easily, and her breath caught at what was revealed in its wake.

"A seal?" She hadn't been expecting it.

"I felt her chakra after the contact and performed the first seal that came to mind," he explained, almost casually. She nodded, processing. _Her?_

He hadn't mentioned he'd been bested by a kunoichi. In fact, he hadn't mentioned the fight at all. It was odd he hadn't felt the need to debrief her, to identify what went wrong and right and tell her what to work on so she'd be better prepared next time. She'd failed in her own fight, and strangely, she wanted him to tell her so. This distracted, reticent Kakashi was someone she used to know, and suddenly it seemed like the last five years had never happened.

But they had. She wasn't the single-minded genin from that time any more, and now she had a chance to prove herself. Tsunade-san believed in her and Sakura tried to do the same.

"Um, it's not complete...the seal." Runes and symbols chased each other around a broken circle. Like everything he did, the seal had been executed perfectly, but he'd been too drained or had not enough time for the ritual to complete. Whatever jutsu this (female!) enemy-nin had performed, tendrils of malignant chakra were leaking out through the opening and poisoning his body.

Sakura laid her palm flat against the mark, dark like a bruise against the pale flesh of his back. His skin was for the most part smooth and unblemished, and she guessed it was only to be expected since he was usually covered from head - well, nose - to toe. His shoulder was hot to the touch and she frowned, pressing her other hand to his neck. His pulse was steady under her hand, and his temperature seemed fine. She tried his lower back, away from the seal. Normal. She reached around to the flat plane of his stomach. Fine again. Looping her arm over, she was checking the area just below his collarbone when he grabbed her hand, asking in a strangled voice,

"What are you doing?"

"It's just that you're so hot," she replied worriedly, moving her hand back to the seal.

"I'm _what?_" If she didn't know for a fact Kakashi never raised his voice, she would have sworn he yelled that last bit.

"You're burning up," she told him patiently, afraid that the jutsu may have affected his hearing. "Now please, sit still and let me check you out."

He seemed annoyed by that as well, but she ignored him and closed her eyes, directing chakra along the inner coils to her right hand. Theoretically, she could use either, but she was right-handed in most things and found that medical work done with her right hand was more effective than when she directed with her left. A strong hand had more control, and she could use more detailed techniques with less effort, all of which worked out rather nicely in the end.

When she was satisfied with the chakra gathered in her palm, she moved her hand over the wound, taking care not to touch the skin. Working slowly, she _pushed_ the chakra out through her hand, pressing it down through the air until it rested lightly over the seal. She made sure it covered every inch of affected skin, then _pushed_ again, this time sending her chakra into Kakashi's body.

She met with resistance after only a few seconds. His chakra sensed no threat, and had let her entry go unmolested, but traces of the enemy chakra were strong here. The jutsu lingered, a sour note amidst Kakashi's otherwise clean and steady chakra.

Concentrating, she sent tiny chakra probes out along his inner coils, feeling them as they moved throughout his body. They followed her instructions and set about gathering what was left of the enemy-nin's power, cutting off pathways and gradually steering the remnants back to where her hand waited, poised.

It was slow going, and draining, and Sakura was experiencing the unpleasant sensation of being in two places at once. One consciousness had sore knees from being on the ground for so long, and had sweat running down her face; the other was weightless, bodiless...flying along nerve pathways working to save Kakashi, racing through his body like speed itself.

It was giddying, and confusing.

The last of her chakra soldiers made its way back, pushing a particularly stubborn piece of nasty jutsu. _Finally_, she thought, dragging her palm back a bit so she could manipulate the chakra below. She formed the chakra still in Kakashi's body into a scoop of sorts, then pulled it up and out, ignoring his stifled gasp at the shock.

With a flick of her wrist, she sent the bad chakra flying. She opened her eyes and saw it hit the water, its entry accompanied by a hissing sizzle.

"Is it done?" His voice sounded rusty and she wondered how much time had passed. Often operations had required her to work through the night, and she was frequently astonished to come back after starting on a patient in the early evening only to find it was morning, or even late afternoon when she was finished.

"Yes," she croaked, her own voice raw. She got painfully to her feet and hobbled over to the water, drinking gratefully before filling one of the waterskins for Kakashi. It was a sign of how exhausted she was when a hand pulled it from her grasp and all she could do was stare at it dumbly.

"Thank you," he rasped, then frightened..._hopeful_...she turned slowly and took her first real look at him.

She didn't know what she was expecting, but it wasn't what she got, which was complete and utter _normalcy. _He wasn't scarred or disfigured and there were no horrible acne marks or strange facial growths. His cheeks were smooth and beardless; his nose was straight, if a little long, and his lips were thin and presently wrapped around a waterskin. He took his time drinking, then met her gaze with a level stare.

They didn't speak for a long moment - she too busy taking in every little detail, he too busy enduring it.

She broke the silence first, proffering a hand, which he regarded curiously.

"Why hello there," she said brightly, with more energy than she currently felt. "I'm Haruno Sakura, and you are?"

He stared at her a second longer, before throwing his head back and laughing like she'd never heard him laugh before.

_And I haven't, really. It's the first time I've heard him laugh freely and unmuffled._

"Lovely to meet you, Sakura," he replied, taking her hand. "You can call me Kakashi."

----

Against his better judgment he made them rest for two days more by the stream. Sakura had all but collapsed with exhaustion following her marathon healing session, and he'd needed time to recover from whatever the enemy-nin had done to him.

"I can't be certain I've removed it all," Sakura had said while repairing the seal that afternoon. "You're sure you don't know what jutsu this ninja - this woman - performed on you?"

He'd ignored her blatant curiosity and reiterated that no, he hadn't, then changed the subject, reluctant to tell her the truth behind his wound without really knowing why.

_"Funny story, Sakura. Want to know who stabbed me? Well - get this - it was you!"_

Yeah, right. He didn't really see her believing that one.

He could hardly believe it himself. He'd racked his brain for anything relating to a _Shoten no Jutsu_ but comprehension eluded him. It was irritating because he knew he'd heard it before and it was like his mind was taunting him, deliberately not letting him piece together the memory. He hoped it was a side-effect of the strange chakra wound, because if not...it meant he was getting old.

Rather than reliving the fight, he decided to think about the possible ramifications of it. Currently they were ill-prepared for another one, having both been weakened somewhat, and their food supplies were running dangerously low - while they could live off the land it wasn't something he enjoyed particularly. His spare clothes were no more, and Sakura's could do with replacing as well.

When she woke up that afternoon, she remembered she'd left the larger packs behind at the old campsite, and they'd been further delayed. He sent a Kage Bunshin back to recover them, waving off the trouble. He hadn't actually expected her to carry him to safety - he couldn't even imagine how she would have managed to make it here weighed down with camping packs as well.

Finally he was patched up to her satisfaction, and they started walking on the third day, returning to the forest. They made their way slowly and carefully while remaining on the alert. She made him do stretches every hour, and he was rolling his neck and flexing his shoulders for the fifth time before he realised they had nearly reached a township.

She was as astonished as he was, having been told by her own shadow clone the village lay further west. He hesitated a moment then told her to wait with the things. She nodded and he was off, using _Shunshin no Jutsu_ to reach the edge of the forest in no time.

He balanced on a high branch and surveyed the village. From his vantage point it seemed much smaller than Konoha, and he wondered what, if any, school of ninja the town was affiliated with.

Closing his eyes, he extended the reach of his chakra, flexing his shinobi skills for what seemed like the first time in days. Sakura had done a fine job, and he felt good as new. He'd now be able to hold his own in a fight, should it come to that, and Sakura looked fully recovered as well.

If they were going to battle again, they'd be prepared, but he had yet to decide whether or not they'd be entering the village. By his reckoning it had been around three months since they'd been exposed to civilisation - recent battle notwithstanding. Were they ready to re-enter society? Was it safe to do so?

He shaded his eyes and stared down at the village, willing a decision to come to him. They could skirt it easily, but supplies were low. They could endanger hundreds, but who was to say the enemy-nin had been sent by Orochimaru? They could talk with other people again, but would they ever regain the quiet camaraderie this forced exile had grown into?

Questions chased each other around Kakashi's skull, each one increasing his dilemma. One stood out from the others, however. It was simple, all-encompassing.

What were they going to do?

-------------

--------

----

-

I don't have a name for the medical jutsu I had Sakura use - there was no opportunity for her to go, "Oh, btw, I just performed _Insert name no Jutsu_ on yew heart". If anyone can think of an awesome title for it, let me know as it may be relevent later on.

I've also decided to drop the rating on the story for the time being. I'm always at least one chapter ahead (currently at thirty percent of chapter eight) and there's nothing in the immediate future that requires an M rating. It's always better to be safe than sorry, but I can't justify it at the moment. This could and most likely will change further down the line. (And I'd expected this story to be over in 10 chapters, too)

Thanks so much to DarkenedSakura as always - you rule :D. Thanks also to IcarusT and Magus, who both gave me feedback on this chapter; and theblackestfaery, who looks forward to each new one. Aaaand special thanks to everyone who takes the time to leave a review, it makes my day coming home from work to find those little comment emails. Yay.


	6. Changing

Chapter Six

Changing

----

The path down to the village was winding and overrun with weeds - it was obvious no one had walked this way of late. Sakura picked her way along it, envying Kakashi's sure-footed gait. She wished, not for the first time, that they'd taken the easy option and simply reappeared down the bottom in a puff of ninjutsu.

Kakashi would hear nothing of it, and it wasn't only that walking would apparently be good training ("You're still a chuunin, after all") but he also didn't want to advertise the fact that they were both shinobi. To that end he'd moved to take drastic measures after he'd finally decided that they would enter the village.

He'd deliberated for a very long time. Afternoon had melted into early evening, and she'd been lying down, draped over a low branch when he returned. She rolled off and dropped to the ground, expectant.

"We will be going into the village."

She nodded but he wasn't watching, crossing purposefully to his pack and withdrawing a small cloth bag.

She watched as he pulled it open and removed a number of interesting objects: an eyepatch; some cigarettes; what looked like a false beard; pots of makeup; and finally, the items she supposed he'd been looking for, a handful of small packets. She moved closer, intrigued.

"What are those?" she asked, wondering what he was planning to do with an eyepatch and cigarettes. Well, and the other things.

"Dye," he answered, holding each one up to what was left of the afternoon sunlight, squinting through the greased paper. He put one to the side immediately but kept going through the rest, adding them to what she assumed was the reject pile. When he'd decided on two packets, he returned the remainder to the bag and reached out, handing one to her.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Her clothes were looking fairly shabby but she didn't really think a change of colour would improve their overall appeal.

He grinned, and she had a second to marvel at his unmasked face before he answered, "Your hair."

Horrified, her fingers flew to her scalp. _Her hair?_ She kept it short because it was easier to care for that way, and it kept it away from patients when she was helping out at the hospital. And of course, she'd made that big stand about vanity and perserverance all those years ago at the first chuunin exam, and she couldn't really change her image back after that.

But to make it a different colour! Sakura's mother had always affectionately called her "little coral top" and it was truly her secret pride, a natural pink that no packet could emulate.

She looked fearfully at the innocuous packet sitting in her palm. It taunted her, threatening to expose her selfishness, and she clutched frantically for an excuse that Kakashi would accept.

Then, something clicked. _Two packets._

"Hold on!" she cried, a horrible thought taking shape in her mind. He glanced up, the sunset catching on his forehead protector and slanting into her eyes. "You don't...you're not dying your hair too, are you?"

She couldn't fully explain why the idea pained her, but it did. To think of Kakashi changing, becoming someone else...his being, his image were the only constants in her current existence. She didn't know how to cope with this.

"Of course," he replied, regarding her oddly. "By now it will be known that our "mission" has taken much longer than anticipated, and two more missing-nin will have been added to the pages of the Bingo book in Konoha. And really, Sakura, neither of us are inconspicuous." He indicated her hair, then his own. "You would have been taught back at the academy that a ninja can't rely only on their jutsu and chakra. A true shinobi uses whatever is available in order to succeed, and that is what we're doing."

She couldn't really object, when he put it like that.

----

They mixed the foul-smelling poultices according to Kakashi's half-remembered instructions, and he assured her it would rinse out over time.

"Even if it doesn't," he added, not helping matters at all, "one of these packets is an agent that will remove any traces of the dye."

Sakura convinced him to go first, and he sat uncomplaining while she combed the goo through his hair. She smoothed it across his scalp until it seemed like he'd been dipped in tar, then looked mournfully at her stained fingers.

"Will this come off?" she wondered aloud, and Kakashi recalled that an ANBU had wiped it off with sake.

"Although," he considered, "any alcohol should do."

She was fortunate enough to have packed a small vial of rubbing alcohol to use as a disinfectant, and trying it, was relieved to discover it worked. She scraped the excess off slowly, and pretended not to notice when Kakashi indicated it was her turn.

"Sakura." She knew it was childish, and that it would (probably) rinse out, but she _liked _her hair, dammit. She'd been teased about its colour long before anyone had noticed her large forehead, but she'd grown to love both as unique components that made her an individual. "You can't put this off forever."

He waited patiently, the mixture at the ready, and she said goodbye to her vanity before sitting heavily on the stump they were using as a barber's chair.

She loosened her forehead protector and slid it off, gripping the metal plate tightly. "Okay," she said, determined to be mature about this.

"It's not a matter of life and death," he said, a hint of amusement creeping into his voice. And then they were quiet, because for all they knew, it could be.

He slathered some mixture onto her head, and she jumped as the cool wetness met her skin. When she'd put his on, she'd sectioned each area, making sure the roots were covered before dragging it out along the tips. Kakashi evidently wanted to get as much on as quickly as possible, and made short work of emptying the basin before putting it on the ground and adding a second hand to the equation.

He massaged the poultice into her scalp, strong hands moving carefully, and - she was scandalised to find herself thinking such a thing - almost _sensually _across her skull. She couldn't remember the last time she'd be touched so intimately and surrendered to the soothing motions, even if it was something as unromantic as having dye rubbed into her hair.

Her head lolled. She was so relaxed, so comfortable...surely Kakashi wouldn't mind if she just drifted off to sleep for a bit? She wondered drowsily where he'd learned to massage like that when he gave her a sharp pat on her crown, jolting her back to wakefulness.

"All done," he said, taking the vial from her slack grip and soaking a strip of his old shirt to clean his hands. She jerked her neck experimentally. The mixture made her head feel heavy and she hoped no enemy-nin were lurking nearby because they were at their most unglamourous and it would be rather difficult to fight all lopsided like this.

"How long?" she asked, pointing at her slimy scalp.

He looked thoughtful. "About an hour, as I recall."

"So what do we do now?"

He grinned, and under his dark, sticky helmet he looked ten years younger. With a lurch, she remembered Ino's confession from the day they left.

_Really Sakura...Kakashi-san is fine the way he is, mysterious and aloof. Although I imagine he'd need to take that mask off for some things..._

She'd forgotten all about Ino's feelings. She supposed she had an excuse what with running for her life and battling enemy-ninja but she felt terrible, a worthless friend. She made a mental promise to slip in a few Ino stories at their earliest convenience.

"That's easy. We get ready."

----

They reached the village after nightfall, at a time when most families were either having dinner or settling down to sleep, depending on how early they needed to rise in the morning. It was all part of Kakashi's plan as they'd be subjected to less questions stumbling in under the guise of weary travellers later in the evening.

Not that he could find anything even remotely questionable about their story or appearance. They'd decided that Sakura was the only daughter of a wealthy landowner who had died in a dubious "accident"; to prevent anything similar happening to herself she'd employed an older, semi-retired ninja to take care of her and deliver her safely to relatives who lived in the Earth Country.

And they looked...they looked _very _different. Aware that his mask-wearing quirk was fairly well known, he'd opted not to wear his spare. It had been hard to cast aside, but it was truly a double-edged sword. Any anonymity he felt it gave him was immediately cancelled out by enemies able to recognise him on sight. But still...without it he felt almost naked.

He'd adopted it shortly after his father died. He hated the inevitable comparisons, the furtive whispers that had started at the funeral.

_"--looks just like his father--"_

_"--dark eyes and silver hair, you know --"_

_"--suppose he'll turn out the same way?"_

That very night he'd taken his father's old shortsword and hacked at his head until hardly any hair remained. Anything to remove reminders of the White Fang's hated legacy.

So he went without the mask, and chose to wear the eyepatch instead, needing to cover up the Sharingan at the very least. All in all, he felt rather dashing; Sakura had flatly told him he looked like a bandit.

His hair, dry now after cleaning off the excess dye, was a dull, uncompromising black. He'd made Sakura emphasize the "older" part of the ninja story because he expected the colour wouldn't last that long, and patches of silver were easily explained by age.

Sakura's packet of dye had been newer, and he hoped it would stick, since pink regrowth would seem rather strange now that she was a brunette. It was a plain, nondescript brown, and it worked well at dulling her features. Hopefully no one would look twice and see the strength in her eyes or the determined cast to her face.

He could argue that all of this was unnecessary; they could have simply used a genjutsu to alter their appearance. But he was reluctant to put faith in their own illusionary abilities now that they were facing someone with skills that could fool the Sharingan. If they attracted attention, their hasty disguises would mean nothing. The point, however, was to avoid that attention; and if they managed to do that, he was confident they could bide unchallenged here for a few days at least. He wasn't certain the enemy-nin had come from here in the first place; it could be merely coincidental they'd been attacked within three days' walk of the village.

If he'd learned anything in his life, it was that nothing was coincidental.

Behind him, Sakura tripped, and he heard her muttering angrily at a tree root that had apparently come out of nowhere. At least he wouldn't have to instruct her to walk less gracefully. After so many years he moved like a ninja, and to a trained eye he would never be anything but. So to prevent interest they'd settled on making him an aging chuunin with too much time on his hands, happy to accept this run-of-the-mill mission.

Their stories set, their disguises intact, they entered the township.

----

They found an inn without much difficulty, the lodging symbol painted brightly on a board that swung from the second floor. The few stragglers out and about at this time of evening hadn't even glanced at them, and Kakashi thanked once more the ANBU travel kit that had somehow made its way into his pack.

He released a pent-up breath when they stood safely in the lobby, and reminded himself that it was far from over, although it was certainly a relief to have the initial hurdle dealt with for the most part.

They waited a few minutes before Sakura's patience deserted her, and she reached out, picking up the little bell on the reception desk and giving it a shake.

As if summoned by a jutsu, the innkeeper shuffled out from a back room, mumbling fiercely about late-night callers. He plonked a bottle of sake on the counter and squinted at them with bleary eyes.

"What do you want?" The man's breath reeked of alcohol, and beside him Kakashi felt Sakura physically recoil from the stench.

"A room, if possible," Kakashi replied, keeping his features calm. What a stroke of luck! People were more susceptible to jutsus when inebriated, so on the off chance anything went wrong it wouldn't be a problem dealing with him.

The man grunted and managed to look both very drunk and somewhat disdainful, quite a feat in his current condition. He was wide and stout, as most innkeepers are wont to be, and a brush of wiry hair was pulled back at the nape of his neck. A once snowy apron strained across his broad waist, but remnants of a good many dinners had speckled it over time.

"Payment up front."

Kakashi nodded - he'd expected no less - and handed over the coins without argument. Their hair might be clean but their clothing certainly wasn't, and if they had any funds left over it would be in their best interest to purchase replacements tomorrow.

Food, supplies, a change of clothes - he hoped the money he'd packed would cover the costs.

The other man grunted again, moving behind the desk and pulling out an ancient-looking registry scroll, which he then thumped onto the tabletop. With a long-suffering sigh he unwound its binding and unrolled it to a free frame where he waited, ink brush poised.

They watched him, uncomprehending.

"Your names?" he snapped and Kakashi gave him the false ones they'd decided upon, surprised when he wrote them in a clear and graceful hand. He blew savagely on the parchment then wrapped it back up again impatiently, before unlooping a key from a ring on his belt and handing it to Sakura.

"Upstairs on the left," he informed her tersely, grabbing back the sake bottle and lurching off, back through the door he'd first appeared from. It swung shut with an audible click, and they shared a glance, astonished yet amused by the man's actions. They helped themselves to a lantern from a nearby table, then shouldering their packs, made their way upstairs.

The inn was small, and had only the two stories, so they found their room easily enough. Sakura burst out laughing when she examined the key, and she held it out so he could share the joke.

"Our room number is seven," she commented, extremely entertained. "I choose to take that as a positive sign."

"Yes, surely it is fate," he drawled, taking the key and unlocking the door.

"No, really," she argued, following him in and setting her pack on the floor. "What are the chances?"

He considered the size of their room in comparison to the rest of the building. "One in about ten?"

"Oh." She deflated. "I just thought...you know..."

He did. And for a moment he wanted to be seventeen again, looking at the world through naive and optimistic eyes. _Or even one eye_, he thought humourously, a wry smile twisting at his lips. But his youth had been and gone, over far too quickly, the innocent years of his life able to be counted on the fingers of one hand. The future was what he should be worried about, and how he was to protect Sakura's future with his own.

He lowered his pack. The room was small as well: one bed; a washstand set before a tiny mirror on the wall; and a single chair tucked away in a corner. A door led into what he assumed was the bathroom, and a narrow cupboard sat beside it, tall and thin. It was positively luxurious compared to what they'd endured over the last few months, and suddenly it was all he could do to stay awake. The kunai wound had healed quickly, but it still tingled occasionally, and he had a slight headache from whatever powdered root had given his hair its new hue. He stifled a yawn and crossed to the washbasin, removing the bandit eyepatch before washing his face. He watched in the mirror as Sakura readied the bed, adjusting the pillows and unfolding an extra blanket from the bottom of the mattress. Wiping his face with the towel provided, they swapped places, letting Sakura have her turn to freshen up.

He sat on one side of the bed, leaning over to unfasten his sandals, setting them under the chair in the corner of the room. He removed his jacket and undershirt but kept on his trousers, mindful of the fact they'd be sharing the bed and he didn't consider it proper to curl up next to his student half-naked.

He pulled back the covers as Sakura followed suit, stripping down to a singlet and her undershorts, folding her shirt and medic-skirt over on the chair.

"You ready?" she asked, moving to turn down the lantern. He nodded.

The room plunged into darkness and he felt her cross the room and get into the bed, the mattress depressing slightly under her weight.

"Good night," she whispered and he murmured a reply, before sleep overtook him and he was out like a light.

-----

Sakura sensed when his breathing slowed and deepened, and she sighed in relief before flopping back onto her pillow. His chakra wound bothered her still; it was healing, but very gradually. She'd redrawn the seal but something still wasn't right, and she was certain he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep these last few nights. Usually he rested very lightly, constantly on the alert, and she felt a sudden rush of warmth knowing that he trusted her so implicitly he was able to sleep easily in her presence.

Moonlight filtered in though the room's single window, washing across the floor and illuminating Kakashi's face. She never tired of seeing it unmasked - she supposed it was like any mystery finally revealed and she had to keep checking that it was real, reassuring herself that this smooth-faced stranger was really him. From this angle, he was almost handsome and again her thoughts returned to Ino's fierce admission from all those months ago.

Overcome with what felt a bit like guilt, she looked away and then rolled over, trying to make herself comfortable. She'd done nothing to be guilty about, so why was it gnawing at her? Maybe it was just that Ino was one of her closest friends, and Sakura hadn't thought of her very often during their estrangement from Konoha. Maybe it was that she hadn't done as the other girl had asked, and put in a good word for her with Kakashi.

Or maybe it was something else that she didn't even dare to consider, a thought so precious and elusive it wouldn't even form.

Plagued by the unsettling knowledge that an answer hovered just out of reach, she turned on her side and looked out the window, seeking solace in the soothing light and constant presence of the moon. _Don't be silly_, she chided herself. _Just concentrate on getting through this. No need to distract and second-guess yourself every step of the way. _

Hoping very much that everything would seem less confusing in the morning, she closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep.

----

Kakashi dreamed.

_It began in the past, as many of his dreams did, high above the floor of a forest near the Hidden Rock Village. He and Obito had gone their separate ways, but moments after parting Kakashi's sense of responsibility had taunted him, asking him jeeringly if this was really the right thing to do. A brief struggle with his conscience, and he was following one teammate to the other, Obito's words from earlier ringing in his ears. _

_"Those in the ninja world who break the rules and regulations are called trash," he'd said, his normally weak and placid face taut with the strength of his conviction. "But those who don't care about their companions are even worse trash!"_

Trash, eh? _Kakashi mused, coming to land on a branch above Obito, who had concealed himself and was watching the two enemy-nin talk amongst themselves below. He could see Rin, tied in front of a rock, flopping limply over her bindings and he wondered if they were already too late, if his refusal to follow immediately had signaled her death regardless. _

_And then one of the enemy-nin vanished, melting into the rock face and reappearing through the bole of the tree Obito unwittingly shared with Kakashi. Without even thinking Kakashi threw himself downwards, slicing at the ninja before he could reach his teammate, imbuing his blade with chakra to strengthen the hit. _

_The dream skipped forward - he knew they had spoken, the enemy-nin and himself - but suddenly he was flying backwards and there was something wrong with his field of vision, something had happened to his left eye. He remembered there had been pain, sharp and stinging, but because this was a dream he was detached and it was a relief to not have to live through it again. Once had been enough._

_The kunai had gouged him deeply, etching a neat path down the side of his face. It dug into the unresisting flesh of his eyelid and cut open his eye, rendering it useless in a single slice. Blood and other fluids seeped out over his cheek and he fought to remain steady, losing his balance from the impetus of the strike. Obito clutched at him, keeping him upright, before time and space _shifted _around them and their positions were reversed. _

_Now he was looking down at Obito, who lay crushed beneath a fall of stone, a peaceful cast to his features. He seemed to know death was just around the corner and had come to terms with it, offering his eye to Kakashi as a farewell gift. Numb with disbelief at how events had transpired, he'd accepted. _

_Rin had completed the transplant with seconds to spare, just before an enemy-nin discovered them and blasted their hideout to rubble. When the dust cleared Kakashi stood alone, tears leaking from his closed eye and running down his ruined cheek. _

_"Come on, crybaby," the enemy-nin taunted. "I'll break you apart!"_

_He opened his eyes._

_Now he was kneeling atop a rocky cliff, rain blurring his vision as he looked down at Naruto's prone form, peaceful and serene beside the scored hitai-ate that Sasuke had left behind. Maybe he was dead; Kakashi wasn't sure, and a familiar numbness spread through his body, dulling his senses and mentally preparing him for another loss. _

_If it was Naruto's fate to die like this, then surely it was Kakashi's curse to keep on living, to always be the last one standing as everyone he'd ever let close was torn cruelly from his grasp. _

_He reached out to pick up the young boy's body, but when his hands closed around a lifeless corpse he realised it was Sakura, and she'd been killed too because of his stupidity, his inadequacy, his inability to protect his precious people. _

_The numbness shattered and became a dull and throbbing ache. Pain lanced from the wound on his shoulder and he howled his hurt and frustration as the rain steamed around him, hissing into vapour as flames appeared from nowhere. He was hemmed in, a circle of fire leaping into existence, trapping him within even as Sakura's body faded from his grasp. He scrabbled frantically for her but she was gone, the heat from the flames intense and dry --_

-- and then he awoke with a start only to realise the fire was not a figment of his imagination, but a real, live blaze. Smoke clouded the room as flames licked at the walls, the mirror cracking ominously from the intensity of the heat. He coughed, bringing a hand to his mouth, then looked down at Sakura, who lay beside him, dangerously still. He sat up, hurriedly considering reasons for their situation, and everything he thought of came right back to one thing.

The inn was on fire.

They'd been found.

-------------

--------

----

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a great holiday and doesn't have to work, unlike me. :( Thanks to the usual peeps, you know who you are.

I also wanted to address a rather quirky coincidence - **sakura blossom** left me a review yesterday which contained the following: _shouldn't they disguise themselves before they enter the village? After all, i'm sure that a person wil silver or pink hair is pretty noticeable, no one else has that color hair in the entire manga unless they're old, then they have silver hair. sakura definately needs to dye her hair._ I just wanted to point out, that in a random flash of irony, they DO dye their hair. I've had this chapter written for nearly two weeks, and the day before I put it up, I get a review that guesses the story. Go figure.

Thanks as well to everyone who reads and reviews, I love hearing from you. :)


	7. Burning

Chapter Seven  
Burning

----

Sakura dreamed.

_She was twelve again, and weary, her feet sinking into the sandy ground of the arena. It was the chuunin exam; Ino stood opposite, looking just as exhausted as Sakura felt. She remembered they were fighting and tried to rack her brain for a useful technique, some jutsu that could get his over and done with, but her mind was as tired as her body and moved too sluggishly to help._

_"So, Forehead Girl," Ino taunted, her voice carrying easily to both Sakura and the stands, "what are you going to do?"_

_Sweat dripped down into Sakura's eyes and she rubbed at them impatiently. When she looked up again, she knew that something had changed but it took a moment for her to figure it out._

_They were still in the arena but young Ino had been replaced by her present self, five years older and even more beautiful, more confident. Sakura felt a rush of affection at the sight of her best friend and started running towards her, wanting to tell her everything that had happened in the time she'd been gone. _

_And then she stopped, frozen in mid-step, unable to go either forwards or backwards. Through staring eyes she saw Ino smirk in triumph even as she crumpled, falling down across from her as the _Shintenshin no Jutsu _took effect. Sakura's mind prickled, shifting to accommodate a third consciousness._

_"Hello, Sakura," Ino said, poking at her private thoughts and rummaging through her memories. "You didn't answer me before, you know."_

_Sakura felt faint. Even Inner Sakura had withdrawn, unable to cope with this intimate attack on her self._

_"What question?" she managed to reply, dimly aware that her physical body had sunk to its knees, blood leaking out from its nose._

_"You _know_ what question," Ino returned, mind-fingers coming to rest on Sakura's secret, half-formed thought of the night before. She held it up, letting it sit between them. "What are you going to do?"_

_Ino's grasp tightened. Panicked, fearful, Sakura lunged for her treasure, ripping it from Ino's hold. Momentum carried her forward and suddenly she was falling through her own mind, toppling over the edge into nothingness, the dark rushing past and through her as she fell and fell and fell._

_She came to rest at the bottom of an abyss. Blackness surrounded her, a dim light the only thing reassuring her that she was here and in one piece. She looked down. The glow came from her precious thought, still gripped tightly in the palm of one hand. Bringing it closer to her face she wondered at its opacity, its tangible nature...but above all, its very existence. Last night she hadn't let herself discover what it was - what it _meant - _but maybe now was the time. She could open it here, in the cold depths of the abyss where no one could find her and tell her what she was thinking, what she was feeling was wrong._

_Because only in her dreams did she feel safe enough to face this innermost thought. She was a master at locking away what she really felt, and the differences between her emotions and what she said had always been so extreme she'd developed another personality. Both Sakuras were curious now, and they held their breath as she brought the other shaking hand across until the thought hovered in midair, floating between her palms._

_"Sakura."_

_She jumped, the thought slipping from her fingers and rolling across the inky floor. It stopped next to a sandalled foot, and a hand reached out, scooping it up, before bringing it close to dark eyes in a familiar face._

_She forgot how to breathe._

_He looked the same, but different. Always handsome, the years had made him beautiful, allowing him to finally grow into the fine Uchiha features. His blue-black hair had grown out and was bound behind him; the customary almost-smirk replaced by an intense and serious stare._

_"Sasuke-kun," she whispered, but it wrenched from her like a moan, and her heart beat a staccato rhythm against her ribcage, its prison._

_He moved closer. The glow of her thought flickered unsteadily in his hand, as if his appearance had weakened its intensity. Dazed, she hardly noticed, but then his hand clenched, near extinguishing the light._

_"Don't!" she cried, and he relaxed his grip, a frown marring that perfect, beautiful face._

_"Why?" he asked, and she didn't know herself._

_"Because if you do, I can't see you."_

_Was that really what she wanted? Powerful emotions, long buried and near-forgotten, came rushing back inside of her, turning her to ice._

Funny,_ she mused. _Shouldn't I be warm and tingly? Love was always hot, before

_Sasuke moved even closer. Now, if she wanted to, she could reach out and touch him, and once, she would have...but this time something stopped her, something stayed her hand. She didn't know why but suddenly she knew she was missing something very important, if she could only remember then everything would work out and she'd be warm again._

_In his hand, the thought sputtered. Distracted, she looked down at it, and under her gaze the faint glow grew brighter, the sphere of light expanding until it was too big for Sasuke's palm._

_He thrust it from him as if it pained him, and perhaps it did. Larger now, it had acquired a tinge of red, an edge of flames, and she stared at it as if entranced._

_"Don't!" he said sharply, but she couldn't look away. The sphere grew even bigger and more radiant. She sensed Sasuke throwing his hands up to shield his eyes but the light seemed to welcome her and she took a step forward, reaching out._

_"I must..." she whispered, almost to herself. "I need to go back to--"_

_The light enveloped her. Warmth returned. And when she opened her eyes it was to see Kakashi's worried face peering down at her, the ridiculous eyepatch slung too high across his forehead._

_She felt a lazy smile spread across her face, and lifted a heavy hand, stroking over his lips and cheeks before sliding the eyepatch into place._

_"So you're the reason I had to leave," she murmured, moving her hand up to rest upon his hair. Then, with a gentle sigh, her hand slipped down and her eyes closed once more, falling this time into a deep and dreamless sleep._

----

_What the hell was _that_ all about?_

Shocked at her touch, Kakashi stared down at Sakura, distantly relieved that this time, she was just asleep.

When he'd awoken back in their room, she'd already inhaled so much smoke he had feared his dream had been a portentous one. Scooping her up, he made his way across the room, ignoring the flames that licked at the walls. He balanced her awkwardly and fumbled with the doorjamb, hissing when the hot metal seared his flesh. Steadying his burden, he kicked down the door, bruising his bare foot but succeeding nonetheless.

As the door blew outwards smoke poured in, taking advantage of the vacuum that followed in its wake. Kakashi coughed, missing his mask, and moved out into the hallway. Fire blocked his path. The stairs were impassable - a beam above them had been eaten through by the flames and threatened to fall at any moment. Looking behind him, he spotted a window at the end of the hall, and sprinting past the other doors, elbowed it open. Peering out, he calculated the drop and judged it to be nothing challenging.

He climbed out, and holding Sakura tight, leaped from the fire out of the second floor.

The road was an unforgiving surface, and he winced as his feet met the hard-packed dirt. He'd be sore tomorrow but at least they were out of danger. Glancing down, he reassured himself that Sakura was still breathing, and she was, albeit shallowly. He turned with her still in his arms, and regarded the inn.

The heat washed out over the road like a physical thing, leeching the moisture from the exposed skin of his face and chest. Flames danced at the windows but it was the sound of the blaze that really hit him, a staticky, ominous crackling that near deafened him, this close.

People from neighbouring homes had spilled out onto the street and stood in their night-things, pointing and murmuring amongst themselves. It was only then that the greater implications of this fire occurred to him.

_What had happened to the other people inside?_

Wishing he'd given the registry scroll more than a cursory glance, Kakashi remained where he was, torn. If he put Sakura down, what was to stop the enemy-nin from darting out of the shadows and kidnapping her? But then, if he didn't do anything to save the guests still trapped inside, how could he proudly call himself a shinobi ever again?

Obito's words washed over him once more, and he sighed, his decision made for him. _Thanks, conscience._ Moving slowly, so as not to attract attention, he made his way through the crowd and slipped down a side street. He stopped near the fruiterer he'd noticed on their way in and freed up a hand, using it to pull the tarpaulin off one of the empty display barrels.

About to slip Sakura in, he paused when she stirred in his arms. He glanced down just as she looked up, gazing at him through heavy-lidded eyes. Her lips turned up into a beatific smile and then her fingers were moving, tracing over his face, heat greater than that of the fire burning him in their wake.

"So you're the reason I had to leave," she whispered, and he wondered cruelly who she saw in that moment, suspended as she was between reality and dreams. Then her hand ghosted over his hair and she was sleeping once more, a rest less worrying than her unconscious state from before.

Remembering that time was of the essence, he eased her gently into the barrel, arranging her slack limbs in as comfortable position as he could manage. He replaced the tarp, leaving it slightly undone at one side, then vanished, back to the inn.

He only hoped he wasn't too late.

----

Sakura awoke inside a barrel.

She didn't know it was a barrel until after she'd panicked and punched her way out of it, and even then she had a hard time figuring it out since it had been reduced to so many splinters. Fortunately the fruit stand she'd been left in front of had other intact barrels sitting outside, so she was able to confirm that yes, she had been inside a barrel, and no, she didn't know why.

She didn't like dark, confined spaces, and waking up in one had sent her into a cold sweat. Wiping the moisture from her brow with the back of her hand, she stood shakily and tried to work out the events leading up to these strange circumstances. They'd reached the village, found the inn, gone to sleep - had she dreamed? she wasn't sure - and then woken up here. Alone.

_Kakashi._

Suddenly her pulse had gone from racing to idling, her heartbeats slowing as her mind tried to work out the possible reasons for their separation. Nothing it offered was able to calm her sudden, icy fear. If they were apart, it could mean only one thing.

He was in danger.

_Okay, calm yourself. Do this right, first things first. Now, where am I?_ Even though every fibre of her body wanted nothing more than to race off in a random direction and hope for the best Sakura knew that it would be pointless to do anything without first taking her bearings. She turned in a wide circle, thinking her surroundings looked familiar, although it was hard to tell now they were inked with the greyish, predawn light. Hmm...maybe they'd passed this place on the way in, but she couldn't be sure. All the buildings looked the same, really.

And then she was distracted from her task by the acrid smell of smoke. A dark cloud of it was drifting over from above the shop roofs - it looked ominous and heavy and she wondered how she could have missed the distinctive tang in the air. Then something occurred to her, a vague recollection she couldn't fully recall. Bringing a hand up to her face, she gave it a tentative sniff.

_Uh-oh._

Disregarding her abortive planning from before, she took a few steps back, then leapt up onto a nearby roof. _New plan_, she thought, grimly jumping towards the inn. _Follow the smoke. _

----

It registered on his second trip inside that this probably wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done. Selfless, certainly. Foolhardy, definitely. But clever? Not really.

The first two rooms had been empty, and he'd wasted time by checking under the beds and behind the curtains. The third room held a single man, elderly and frail; he was awake but apparently had thought himself done for, and been sitting on his bed seemingly waiting for death when Kakashi arrived.

"Can you walk?" he asked, having to shout over the noise of the fire. The older man nodded doubtfully but Kakashi picked him up anyway, depositing him outside in a swirl of leaves. He reappeared in the hallway, cursing the _Shunshin no Jutsu. _While it was useful and worked to save time, he had to know exactly where he was going in order to appear there. Whoever had developed the technique showed a remarkable lack of foresight and Kakashi wished his old sensei had told him more of his own techniques back when they were still a team.

The door to the room he'd shared with Sakura beckoned, but he ignored its lure and continued, their possessions markedly less important than other people's lives. Another empty room and then a double, a couple, still and barely breathing, just as Sakura had been close to dawn. With no time for niceties and no patience either, he strode across the floor and slapped them both awake.

The woman screamed and was up in an instant; her husband only blinked owlishly and rolled over. Kakashi gritted his teeth and ripped the man from the bed, flinging him to the ground.

"Get up!" he ordered and the man obliged, rising hastily. His wife rushed to his side and they clung fearfully to each other as he grabbed them, transporting them all out to the road.

He left them swaying on the street and returned to the fire. The rest of the rooms were empty as well, and he was about to leave when well-trained ears picked up a faint sound above the fire's roar. He looked at the blazing staircase, hoping he'd been mistaken. But then it came again, thin and high and he knew it had not been a figment of his imagination.

A child's cry.

_Shit._ Possible ways to get downstairs flew through his mind and he evaluated them, considering then dismissing them all. Using a jutsu could land him anywhere and there was no guarantee the floor would hold. There was no helping it - he'd have to do this the old-fashioned way.

He traced his path back to their room, and pulled the sheet from the bed, dunking it in the water that hissed in the washbasin. While it soaked, he grabbed their packs from the floor - his was singed a bit, on the bottom - then raced back out into the hallway, pitching them through the still open window.

Returning to the room, he retrieved the sheet and slung it, still dripping, over and around his head and shoulders. He rescued his sandals from where they'd stayed, miraculously untouched under the chair. Donning them, he went back out to the hallway suitably prepared and with no more time for thinking, ran straight down the stairs.

The foyer was the worst affected part of the inferno he'd seen so far. The walls were sheets of fire; lines of flames made a neat pattern on the floor where they followed the lie of the floorboards. The registry desk was unrecognisable now, a shapeless bonfire on one side of the room.

"Hello?" Kakashi called. No answer. Pulling his makeshift cloak tighter around himself, he picked his way across the room and shoved hard against the door the innkeeper had used. The wood groaned under the force of his shoulder and with a heaving shudder the hinges gave way.

He was in a small dining room. Tables and chairs made blazing obstacles in front of him; he scanned the room but it too was empty. He was thinking that he really _had_ made it up when the cry came again, louder and closer. This time he could hear a second voice - he recognised it as the innkeeper's - and using that as a guide Kakashi made his way through the flaming dining sets and pushed open yet another door.

He found himself in the kitchen. Pots and pans lined the walls and stacks of plates had been neatly set on counters around the room. The innkeeper lay on the ground, his legs twisted beneath him, trapped under a frame for cookware that had presumably hung from the ceiling. The heat of the fire had made the screws that kept it in place expand, and it had come loose from the roof and knocked the hapless man to the ground.

A small child of indeterminate gender raised a tearstained face towards him, and seconds later it had stumbled over and clutched at Kakashi's leg, wailing pitiably for him to "Save Papa". He removed the damp sheet, tucking it carefully around the child's thin shoulders. Crying eyes met his serious one, and he nodded, extricating himself from the clinging fingers before moving to the innkeeper's side.

The man greeted him with a pained chuckle. "Ah, ain't it funny how things work out?" He paused to give a dry cough. "Always knew it'd be the drink that got me in the end, but I didn't think it'd be like this."

Heart pounding, Kakashi leaned closer. "What do you mean, the drink?"

Hacking laughter from the innkeeper now. Spittle dribbled out over his lips and dried quickly upon his jowls. "Tipped over a sake bottle too close to the range." He flicked his eyes across to the stove. "Nearly took my head off. Musta blacked out, 'cause when I woke up here I was, and then Masa-chan found me."

Kakashi wasn't sure what to do with the sudden relief that filled him. The fire had come from the innkeeper's drunken ineptitude; it wasn't an attack on him or Sakura after all. Years of being coveted for the secrets of the Sharingan had made him suspicious of most circumstances; that was in addition to the inborn paranoia being a ninja seemed to need. It was almost refreshing to learn there might be such a thing as a coincidence.

But now was not the time for an epiphany. Gathering chakra in the palms of his hands, he coated his arms from shoulder to fingertip with a very thin layter before reaching out and lifting the frame from the fallen man. He levered it up and shoved it across the room, where it crashed into the oven and nearly disintegrated upon impact. He knelt and picked up the innkeeper, slinging his ample weight carefully over his shoulder so as to keep his hands free. He beckoned to the child, who had sought shelter behind a cabinet after being unstuck from his leg.

"Come here, Masa-chan," Kakashi said, and the child obeyed, inching over before flinging itself at him and reattaching itself to his leg. He was about to get them out when a tap set into the wall caught his eye and an idea came to mind.

"Sorry, Innkeeper-san, but is that tap connected to a nearby water supply, by any chance?"

The man moved weakly against Kakashi's back and slurred a reply, wits dulled from the pain. "Yeah...the inn has...had...its own rainwater tank. We put piping in to the kitchen...tank's outside..." he trailed off, limbs loosening in Kakashi's hold as he finally passed out.

Closing his eyes, Kakashi brought his hands up and started a complicated seal chain. The air beat around him, thrumming with such power that even the flames seemed to hesitate, pausing to take stock of this new and as yet unknown force.

"_Suiryudan no Jutsu!_"

He tensed and shifted, reappearing outside just as his water dragon burst from the pipe. It raced through the kitchen and dining room, then spiralled up the staircase, jets of water streaming from its nostrils and dousing the flames. It sped along the hallway and passed through each room, and when the entire building had been soaked to Kakashi's satisfaction he motioned swiftly with a flick of the wrist. The creature vanished, exploding into a sprinkle of droplets that made a short and sudden rain, splashing down onto the faces of those who had gathered to watch.

Or perhaps do more than watch. Looking across, he could see some had arranged themselves into a passing line of buckets, moving water down the chain at what seemed to have been a good pace. They deserted the process now that the fire was out, and crowded around him, curious to see this ninja saviour.

_Well, so much for staying out of trouble._

"Here," he said abruptly, passing the innkeeper to a burly man nearby. Reaching down, he unwound Masa-chan's clinging fingers and moved to push it away.

"Wah!" The kid had a pretty good set of lungs, he was forced to admit. It was handy back inside, but now...

"Masa-chan," he said seriously, kneeling in front of the limpet-child, "you have to let go of me because I need to go and find my friend."

Masa-chan shook its androgynous head. "Don't go! Papa needs you to look after him!"

"Let me have a look," someone's brisk and business-like tone interrupted, and when he turned in their direction he was surprised to discover Sakura as its source. She was striding towards them, her face set, and he felt a rush of relief to see she hadn't been spirited away by enemy-nin unknown.

"You woke up then?" he grinned tiredly and felt his burnt face crack. _Ow. _

"Yes, I did," she snapped, pushing past him and making her way to the innkeeper's side. He was probably the only one who picked up on it as she added under her breath, "in a _barrel._"

Hey, he had an excuse for that one. There had been nothing else that would have sufficed in the short time he had to hide her and he was about to tell her that when he saw she was already deep in concentration, having commenced healing on the other man's badly mangled legs.

He moved back to give her space and was approached by a sheepish looking man who rubbed the back of his head before giving an embarrassed laugh. "Hey, um. Yeah. Thanks for that," he said, and Kakashi realised belatedly he had been the young husband from before.

"You're welcome," he replied. The younger man lingered, shifting from foot to foot awkwardly, as if he had something further to say. He was saved from his apparent dilemma by a tearful young woman racing over and gathering him up, covering his face with kisses.

"Darling!" she cried, dragging him away, "what on earth were you doing in this ghastly place? I've said time and time again I really don't mind if you come home late and wake me up after a business trip..." Her voice faded and Kakashi suppressed a smirk, since that had been a completely different lady to the one he'd rescued from the room earlier on.

He returned his attention to Sakura, who was still working on the innkeeper's legs. He was coming to, and she broke from the operation to speak with him in low tones. The man listened, nodded a few times, then gave her a wan smile as she went back to her task.

"What's your name?" A tug of his pants leg reminded him of his little burden and he looked down, considering.

"I'll tell you if you tell me something." This lack of discernible gender disturbed him.

The child pouted. "No fair, you know my name." A valid point. Something he would not be admitting to someone who only reached his thigh.

"And you'll know mine in just a moment." He squatted down until he was eye level with Masa-chan, and gave a level stare. "Are you--"

"Kakashi!"

_Damn._ There went his only leverege. He sighed and stood back up, acknowledging Sakura's return. "Yo."

"So," she said, and despite having just completed what he assumed was an intense and difficult medical jutsu her voice was hard and firm. Her eyes sparked dangerously. _Tsunade, truly she is your legacy._ "Let's talk about barrels."

Not this again. He smiled carefully and rubbed his temple. "Well, you see, Sakura --"

"Ah!"

He was saved an inspired explanation as Sakura moved past him to where Masa-chan still stood, small lips wrapped around a thumb. She smiled warmly and crouched onto the ground, asking no one in particular, "And who's this cute little girl?"

He blinked. How was that even possible? The child had no obvious gender characteristics at all, yet Sakura had managed to identify it as a girl.

Removing the sticky thumb from her mouth, she gave Sakura a shy smile. "Masa-chan."

Sakura brushed a strand of hair behind the little girl's ear, before rising and offering her hand. "Masa-chan, would you like to come over and see your Papa? He's doing much better now; he was very brave, wasn't he?"

"Un!" She nodded and reached out, clasping Sakura's hand with the innocence reserved for the very young; the kind of naivete that let them believe every older person was capable and strong, able to be trusted _just because_. He watched them cross to the innkeeper's side, Sakura hanging back as the little girl flew into her father's arms.

The sun took this opportunity to rise at last, the first cheery rays of the morning spreading out over the town, coming to rest on the blackened, steaming shell of what had once been the inn. The golden cast of dawn made the scene seem unreal and separate, and he could almost have passed it off as a dream, had his skin not stung with a hot dryness while his lungs struggled for a clean breath instead of one that was shallow, or racking.

He was considering asking Sakura for a quick once-over, at least to soothe his reddened flesh, when a voice sounded from behind him, officious and austere.

"Excuse me, sir."

He looked over his shoulder to find a man locked into a formal bow, head held stiffly, arm across his chest. The pose was held for a strict three seconds before the man straightened, and Kakashi could see he wore a neat uniform garnished with buckles and braids. Epaulettes winked from his shoulders; a hat with the same design was tucked carefully under one arm.

Serious brown eyes met his own as the man introduced himself. "I am Akio Yasuo, an officer of the Ontou Police Force." Ah, Ontou. So that's where they'd ended up. "I require you and your companion to accompany me to the station for questioning."

_So much for staying out of trouble, indeed._

--------------

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Notes on Jutsus:

_Shintenshin no Jutsu_: Mind Body Switch Technique. Ino's family's special technique that allows her to enter an opponent's mind and take control of their body. She used it against Sakura in the chuunin exams but found it difficult to work due to Sakura's split personality.

_Shunshin no Jutsu_: Body Flicker Technique. Allows the user to get from one place to another REALLY FAST.

_Suiryudan no Jutsu_: Water Dragon Bullet Technique. This technique moulds water into the shape of a dragon and uses it as a powerful water attack. Kakashi copied this off Zabuza right at the beginning of the manga.

Yay, another chapter down! Thanks to everyone who's still following the story - I hope you're liking where it's going. Mad props to my posse (DS, Magus, IcarusT), I coudn't do this without you; and a shoutout to my mutual stalker Nushi, who loves Kakasaku but writes a very convincing Hayasaku. Mmmm. Please review and let me know what you think!


	8. Lying

Chapter eight  
Lying

----

Sakura had never been to a police station before and was therefore uncertain as to what to expect. From the way Kakashi's mouth had hardened at Constable Akio's request to accompany him, she didn't really think it was going to be a good thing.

She wondered if they even had police back in Konoha. Surely they must have - she knew the word and what it meant - but she couldn't honestly say she'd ever seen a police officer before. Possibly they had no major role in a village full of ninja; after all, the Hokage's word was law, and those who lived the life of a shinobi respected the wisdom and guidance expected from the position. Then again, not everyone back home had been a ninja, and even from a young age she'd known that no society could operate without farmers, tradesmen, doctors and such. Those civilians did their jobs, allowing the shinobi to do theirs.

So did they now have, or had they once had, police in Konoha?

A sudden memory - an abandoned building, a familiar symbol. Then she blinked and the image was gone, but perhaps it explained more than it didn't.

Putting the thought from her mind she turned to Kakashi, who reclined in the chair next to hers in a study of indifference. He'd acquired a shirt from somewhere, pulling it on after she'd lifted the heat from his skin, soothing his burnt flesh with a steady stream of chakra. She hadn't had the chance to do anything about his dry cough because he'd leaned close as they entered the station and spoken softly, without moving his lips, "Don't use or even talk about your medic skills again while we're here."

He'd pulled back and she'd looked at him, surprised. "But you're --" He shook his head slightly in warning and she shut up as their host turned with an inquiring look.

"Is there a problem?"

She'd smiled, guileless. "Ah, no."

Akio had only given her a flat stare as if he knew how far that was from the truth, then continued to lead them to his office.

And now they were here and the good constable wasn't, having been called away just as they were sitting down. A timid rookie had delivered a missive, staring fearfully down at his polished boots while his superior officer read it, then scurrying off with relief as soon as he was done.

"I apologise for the inconvenience," he said, and it sounded like he meant it, "I hope I am not keeping you from your travels, but unfortunately after such an event I am required to detain and question any and all suspicious persons."

Sakura felt her eyes narrow. They'd gone out of their way to not be suspicious! What did they have to do to get a break?

"While I am confident you had nothing to do with the fire, in this instance I need to observe protocol and take down your statements. I will do that as soon as I return from an urgent meeting." He bowed again, low and polite, then went to take his leave. He paused at the door and looked over his shoulder.

"Forgive my rudeness, but I did not ask your names."

His archaic manner of speech was getting on her nerves, and she was sorely tempted to point out that despite what he'd just said, he _still_ hadn't asked their names. Kakashi, however, prudently stepped in and offered the pseudonyms they'd decided on in the forest.

"I am Makoto Kakashi, and this is my charge, Ryoho Sakura."

The police officer inclined his head and exited, leaving them alone in his office. She distracted herself from the butterflies of uncertainty that fluttered in her abdomen by checking out the room. It was small, neat and ordered, and seemed to suit the careful policeman perfectly. His desk was tidy and the varnished wood shone from the sun filtering in through a window behind it. Through the clear panes she could see the village, and beyond that, the forest; the view was pleasing and she wondered how Akio could sit with his back to it all day. She pondered this for a minute, then concluded he was a business-like and efficient man, and would therefore not be distracted by the lure of outside.

She congratulated herself on her insightful character analysis as Kakashi finally stirred, levering himself upright in the chair.

"We seem to have been left alone," he said casually, his words weighted with meaning. They were back in the forest, where coded talk saved lives. _I sense no eavesdroppers, but we cannot be too careful._

"For the moment," she agreed. _Of course._

"I wonder how long Akio-san plans on detaining us." _This is taking up precious time._

She shrugged. "As long as it takes, I guess." _And there's nothing we can do about it._

Silence. Kakashi seemed lost in thought and she had no desire to distract him, especially after all he'd done the night before. She flushed angrily at the memory, furious with herself for succumbing to the smoke. Why had she come across as weak, _again_? All she wanted was to prove she didn't need protecting, and what a top job she'd been doing of that so far. They were both shinobi, but the distance between them had been made painfully obvious once more. Two ninja, both caught in the same situation. One had saved the lives of every person in the inn, and the other? Well, she'd _slept right through it._

Inner Sakura tried to reason with her, mentioning that smoke inhalation had dulled her senses and it could have happened to anyone. But that little voice had never been the one of reason, and the well-meant words fell on deaf ears.

"--legs?" said Kakashi, and she realised belatedly he'd been speaking.

"I'm sorry?"

He gave her a measuring look, concerned by her inattention. She conjured a smile and it seemed to appease him as he repeated himself.

"I said, what was wrong with the innkeeper's legs?"

"Oh, they were broken," she answered without thinking. His visible eye narrowed in warning but the words were out there and the timing was awful, because Akio chose that very moment to return. He crossed the room purposefully and sat down at the tidy, shiny desk, then steepled his fingers and stared over them at Sakura. Inwardly she cursed her easily distracted nature, then railed also against Kakashi's deceptively obvious questions for good measure.

"They are not broken now, Ryoho-san," the policeman said, and she could only sit, frozen, her mind having shut itself down.

Kakashi sighed and rubbed his face. "Was this why you called us here, Akio-san?"

The inquiring eyes released her and she relaxed somewhat as the policeman considered Kakashi's question.

"I was unaware that Taro-san had been seriously injured during the fire," he replied after a moment, and it took a few seconds for Sakura to guess he was referring to the innkeeper. "I assumed he was in shock, and possibly under the influence again, but physically he seemed well. I only recently learned that he had been trapped inside when I met with my superior, after being called away just then."

Again Sakura wondered why his manner of speaking was so formal. It was so old-fashioned it confused her, but Kakashi didn't appear to be fazed.

"Sakura-sama has a special gift," he lied smoothly, and she could barely keep herself from gaping at the unexpected suffix, "a talent for healing that has been passed down and nurtured through her family for hundreds of years. Those whom we are hoping to avoid by way of this journey seek her for this power and will stop at nothing to obtain it."

The elaborate explanation seemed to satisfy the policeman, and he gave them a small smile, the edges of his neat moustache turning up with the motion. She wondered if she saw also a flash of triumph, but it was gone so quickly she couldn't be sure, if it was ever there at all.

"Then I have but a few questions," he said, opening a drawer and extracting a notebook and pen. "As soon as we have sorted out these last few formalities, you will be free to continue on your way."

And though he spoke with complete sincerity, neither ninja felt that that would actually be the case.

----

Akio's few questions were simple enough to answer - they'd gone through the story enough times together to both be able to recite it verbatim. Kakashi sensed no hidden agenda from the serious policeman but was short with him nonetheless, itching to be out of the village, away from people and the awkward situations being near them seemed to bring. He and Sakura had been doing fine on their own - it wasn't until civilisation had entered the equation that it all went pear-shaped.

He coughed discreetly, and scowled on the inside. He couldn't understand why it was taking so long. It was obvious they hadn't started the blaze, and just as obvious Akio knew this. So why the delay? It was either deliberate, and a detaining method, or the police in Ontou had very little to do on a daily basis, and this was the most excitement they'd seen in years. The second option seemed more likely, and would also explain why other officers in pristine uniform kept stopping by with weak excuses to speak with Akio, sneaking careful looks at him and Sakura as they did so.

They'd failed miserably at their objective, which had been, of course, to not attract attention. If they didn't get a move on soon, they'd run out of time to get supplies, and if they left it too much later they'd be forced to stay another night. After being involved in the burning down of one inn, he didn't really like their chances of being allowed into another. And they needed time to sit down and regroup, to talk over a heavily edited version of what happened, back at the forest. He was still unwilling to tell her just how he'd been overpowered, but they needed to look at his curse seal again, since it was itching slightly and pulsed every so often.

He was becoming restless, mulling over their options as Sakura impatiently told Akio for the third time how her "father" had never done anything to incur his imaginary enemies' wrath, when the door to the office burst open.

Kakashi was on his feet before the handle hit the wall; beside him, Sakura had half-risen before remembering she wasn't supposed to have ninja reflexes. She waited a beat then let out a surprised, "Oh!" but by the time she'd covered her blunder he'd evaluated the intruder and decided she posed no immediate threat.

The woman who had thrust the door violently aside looked so frail and ill he was amazed that she'd had the strength to turn the handle, let alone crash through. She stumbled in, pale hands outstretched, and had taken a few steps towards them when Akio pushed past him and intercepted her halting process.

"Izanami!" he said gently, a hint of reproach in his voice. "For what reason have you journeyed here?"

She blinked slowly up at him, recognition dawning. "Yasuo-kun?"

He nodded, brushing a strand of dark hair from her pallid forehead. "You have come to the office."

"The...office?" Her mouth moved, repeating his words. She stepped back and looked around vaguely, as if surprised to find herself here.

Kakashi observed their exchange with veiled interest. The stoic constable watched the young woman tenderly, his affection for her obvious upon his face, and he couldn't help but want to take Akio aside and tell him to be less open, less frank. Enemies went after loved ones first and this Izanami was a perfect victim.

Then he remembered that not everyone lived in fear of losing who and what was held dear, that places existed where people lived comfortably and in peace. This clean police station with its slew of uniformed officers who looked after the small and cheerful village was testament to such an ideal world, and he felt a sudden fierce pang of bitterness that his life had turned out so differently from theirs. Then Sakura stood up next to him and he remembered that there was a point to living the life of a ninja, and that was to have the strength and skills to protect those who were important.

He stiffened. Sakura..._important?_ But yes, why not? She was the only member of Team Seven who had stayed in Konoha village; she'd been there all along even if much of her time was spent training with Tsunade. He treated her to ramen occasionally and she called him a pervert just as frequently - it was a comfortable relationship, to be sure. He was more than happy to give of himself what he could, as long as it couldn't be used against him.

And he studiously ignored the fact that it already had been, once.

"Izanami-san?" Sakura crossed the room to the other woman's side, reaching out and tugging gently on a kimono sleeve.

She stopped her appraisal of the room and focussed on Sakura, eyes wide and staring. Then, without warning, she flung her thin arms around one of Sakura's and held on as if for dear life.

"Was it you?" she asked brokenly. "At the market this morning I heard that Taro-san had died and a dirty-looking girl brought him back to life."

Kakashi concealed a snort after such an outrageous exaggeration even as Sakura warred between bristling at the attack on her personal hygiene, and flushing at the compliment.

"I'm sorry, but that's not true. Taro-san wasn't dead, it was just that his legs were hurt. I helped his legs to heal themselves, but no one has the power to bring the dead back to life."

The other woman seemed not to be listening, gazing at Sakura in a kind of frozen desperation.

"So can you do it?" she asked fervently. Her body trembled with the passion behind her words, and Kakashi was disturbed to see a line of blood trickle out from her nose.

Looking horrified, Sakura fumbled for a handkerchief, but Akio beat her to it, pressing a square of snowy linen to the young woman's face. She ignored the gesture, pushing weakly at the imposition, apparently anxious for Sakura's answer.

"Can I do what?" she said finally in what appeared to be an attempt to placate her.

Izanami took a deep breath, droplets of sweat beading on her face.

"Can you fix me?" she whispered pitiably, before slumping forwards in a dead faint.

----

Akio caught her, of course, cradling her in his arms as if she were fragile and could break. Sakura wondered if what the girl had said was true; if she was already broken and needing repair.

"What's the matter with Izanami-san?" she asked quietly, ignoring the despair on the policeman's face. He started, and looked up at her, squinting as if to remind himself who she was.

"Hirogari Izanami...she is my fiancée." Sakura nodded. It had been apparent to her that he at least considered her more than a friend. No need to look under the underneath for that one. "She was always delicate, but several years ago, her condition took a turn for the worse. She often succumbs to these bouts of madness, evading her guards and acting impulsively. Usually," he looked down at her pale form sadly, "she remembers nothing of what has taken place."

They were interrupted again by another disturbance at the door; as one they turned, and this time an older man huffed in, his face ruddy with exertion. He saw Izanami in Akio's arms and let out a cry.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Akio-san! We were at market and she was talking to Fujita-san, and then I turned around and she was gone! I got here as fast --"

"All is well, Hoshi." Akio cut off the heartfelt explanation, his smooth voice sounding to dispel the newcomer's concern. "Now, if you would?"

Hoshi gulped, then nodded, taking Izanami's slight weight and carrying her away, out of the room and presumably home.

Akio watched them go before sighing, returning to his desk and sitting down heavily behind it. He rubbed at his eyes tiredly, then fixed Sakura with a penetrating look.

"Sakura-sama," he started, and again she reacted to the unexpected honorific. "I am sorry to ask you this --"

"And if you have any pride, you won't." Kakashi's interruption startled her; he'd been so quiet these last few minutes. And what did he mean, about pride? His words were confusing, but Akio didn't seem to even notice them, continuing to stare at her as if trying to tell her something. Her mind worked over the conversation, picking bits and pieces and stitching them together.

_Broken...fix...the power to bring the dead back to life..._

"You want me to heal Izanami-san."

She didn't need Akio's hopeful smile to tell her she'd guessed correctly; Kakashi's irritated "Tch!" from behind her was plenty sufficient.

"Sakura," he said warningly, but it was far too late; the idea was there, had hatched and was already growing wings.

"To heal..." she breathed, and then wondered if she could. It would be the perfect opportunity to test her growing medical skills. She knew she was proficient in chakra manipulation - she'd sorted out Kakashi's wound, after all - but it would be something else to study and practice on a sickness, an illness of body that had loitered, strengthened and grown. How different to the violent wounds and harsh breakages that constituted normal shinobi injuries; what a coup to have this opportunity present itself.

She'd always enjoyed learning at school; there was something calming about research and the careful accruing of facts. Her inner scholar itched to get started immediately - if she could try this, and take notes, she could debrief with Tsunade-san when they got back --

_Oops._

She'd forgotten their situation. And judging by the look on his face, Kakashi definitely had not.

----

"If you would excuse us, Akio-san?" Obviously not wanting to deter them from staying, the constable erred on the side of caution and slipped obediently from the room.

Kakashi waited politely until he was gone before rounding on Sakura.

"You're not honestly considering his request?" He knew she was, it was written across her face, but maybe if she voiced her reasons she'd see how foolish the idea was.

"Yes, I am," she replied, serious.

"You do remember who we're hiding from?" Scorn now, and plenty of it. He had a whole arsenal of tones and was barely getting started. She looked away and he realised she _had _forgotten, for a moment, at least.

"Sakura--"

"It's going to be the same anywhere, Kakashi!"

He winced and hoped the entire station couldn't hear.

"If he's going to find us, he'll find us no matter what. It won't matter if we're isolated in the middle of some nameless forest, or surrounded by people in the middle of a town. If - _when_ - Orochimaru decides he needs us he will not hesitate to kill us _both._" She was panting now, fury painting her features and giving her strength. "And if I can save another life before mine is taken from me then maybe I'll die with no regrets."

Damn. She'd thought this through and seemed to really mean it. He evaluated their options quickly, and sighed. It didn't matter what course they decided upon, in any event he was going to come across as the villain.

What to choose from:

_Scenario A. They'd discuss this further. Sakura would come to realise her error in judgment and they'd refuse to aid Akio and Izanami, leaving behind their regrets but best wishes for a complete cure._

_Scenario B. They'd discuss this further. Sakura would continue passionately expounding upon helping out these people in need and he'd eventually knock her unconscious and carry her off, where she'd wake up later and never forgive him, making the remaining duration of their journey lonely and awkward._

_Scenario C. They'd discuss this further. Because he was essentially a "nice guy" and particularly prone to bursts of guilt and self-loathing, he'd back down despite the gravity of their situation and allow Sakura to do as she wished in this attempt to help people she barely knew._

Three possible solutions. And while he rather liked A, and briefly entertained the idea of B...it wasn't too difficult to guess that C, or some such variant of it, would wind up being the end result.

He rubbed his face. Maybe she was getting to him somehow. He was sure he used to be a lot tougher, much harder, and almost rather cold.

Dropping his hand, he found her looking at him, her expressive face showing hope and determination.

"How long do you think it will take?" It was a fair question, and he deserved an answer. If they were going to do this, if they were going to endanger themselves like this, then he had a right to know how long they'd be forced to linger. The woman was dying - even he could sense that - and any healing would be difficult and intense. It wasn't going to be a simple case of an hour's effort. They'd be talking days, maybe weeks.

She swallowed. "I don't know. I don't know what's wrong with Izanami san, or what I'll need to do to help her."

"Do you think you can really save her?" His wording was deliberate, because what he really meant was _is the reason you're so desperate to save this girl because you couldn't save someone else?_ - and if it was true, then the same went for him.

And suddenly he wondered whether he'd truly been able to save anyone at all.

So maybe Sakura wasn't being selfish, or foolish. Maybe she was being kind, and noble. Maybe this was her way of the ninja.

She gave him a challenging look and strangely she seemed stronger in that moment than he'd ever seen her before.

"All I can do," she said as his protests faded to nothing, dying on his lips, "is try."

----

He agreed in the end.

Sakura had hoped he would - Kakashi wasn't the sort of person to ignore those in need. She sensed that Izanami was in a great deal of pain and something inside her, the very thing that had urged her to pursue medical jutsu, _needed_ at least to try to help her. It was an innate feeling, a push she couldn't fully explain, but now it seemed she didn't need to.

Akio was predictably delighted and expressed his gratitude in his own verbose way, before snapping shut the notebook and telling them they were no longer required for questioning. _Funny, that,_ Sakura thought dryly; it didn't really bother her as nothing could quell her sudden, intense excitement.

Finally, a chance to prove once and for all she wasn't useless, that she was a good ninja, an asset to any team. This was her opportunity and there was no way she was going to let this baby go. She felt strong and ready to face this challenge.

"I will accompany you to the household," Akio said, ushering them from his office and locking the door. She thought he probably needn't have bothered - they were in a police station, after all. And if the number of idle policemen was anything to go by, the crime rate here in Ontou was going to be unsurprisingly low.

They left the station in an almost tangible silence, until the door swung shut and the building exploded into a frenzy of chatter and activity. _Those poor guys could really do with a busier town_...but she didn't want to wish crime or suffering onto anyone and reasoned they should be happy with their peaceful existence, something she'd always longed for herself. Although, maybe a quiet life wouldn't suit her, wouldn't satisfy her in the end. She'd grown up with a dream and now she had to live it, through the good times and the bad ones, taking the wheat with the chaff.

She mused on this and came back to the conversation, realising Akio was still talking. "You will like Izanami, Sakura-sama. She too lost her father in tragic circumstances and has tried her best to recover from the loss. I know she did not appear quite...lucid, this morning, but generally she is as kind as she is beautiful, well-mannered and refined."

He was gushing so much it was almost embarrassing, but she couldn't help but feel a twinge at the obvious love he felt for his fiancée. She busied herself with frowning at her fingernails, chipped and short as they were. No one had ever called _her_ beautiful, or refined. She was suddenly interested in how civilians conducted relationships - the courtship process of the common folk, their ins and outs of love.

Her own experience of love was intermingled hope and tears, pain and joy and fear. It was happiness and hurt and sadness and she almost couldn't bear to think of it.

Maybe Ino had been right and she was clinging to a memory, a half-forgotten ghost of a boy who had never really existed. But she'd loved him as long as she could remember and the Sakura who'd dreamed of meaning something to a quiet, proud young man was an important part of the girl she was today. Maybe she was afraid of losing a piece of herself if she took that last step forward into a future she couldn't expect.

"Have you been engaged long?" She was drifting again and chided herself as Kakashi spoke at last. He sounded indifferent but she knew was at least slightly interested, because if he didn't care at all then he'd never think to ask. She took it as a sign he wasn't angry and tried to catch his eye, but he wouldn't properly look at her and she felt the pride from earlier waver at his apparent disregard.

With nothing better to distract her, she tuned out once more as Akio explained how he and Izanami had been betrothed from birth, and had nurtured affection for each other over time.

_Don't dwell on it, _Inner Sakura told her sternly.

_On what?_ she wondered dully.

_On anything. You have these skills, it would be a shame not to use them, develop them. How can you ignore a person who is in need? _

_Yeah, okay, _she answered, distantly relieved no one could eavesdrop on these private conversations she often had with herself. _But what about the other part?_

_Love?_ Inner Sakura replied, and then hesitated for a bit. _Well...I can't really say. You know as much as I do when it comes to _that.

_Which is nothing_, she concluded, no better off. But at least she could use this opportunity to grow as a person, to work on her skills. For too long, she had been the weak one, and she was sick of despising herself for that. It was time for the tables to turn for Haruno Sakura...even if she had to turn them herself.

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Okay. Usually I'm not a big fan of OCs but unfortunately this story needs them to put certain...events into motion. Hopefully all will become clear in a few chapters.

Thanks to the gang, as always, and also Safrawr for pointing out possible inconsistencies. If anyone ever wants elaboration on any part of the story, feel free to drop me a line. I'm more than happy to explain anything that doesn't sit quite right. Thanks for reading!


	9. Learning

Chapter nine  
Learning

----

The complex was located a fair way out of the township, a distance that was enough of a walk to be good exercise and far enough to ensure there would be few neighbours. The surrounds were peaceful, the seclusion was ambient, and all of it gave Kakashi mixed feelings. Should a showdown occur it was a relief to know that the number of people likely to be caught on the peripheries were few, but on the other hand if anything went wrong, it was a long trip back to the village.

He stopped considering the positioning, however, when they finally reached their destination. Beside him Sakura was unable to stifle a gasp and even he found it difficult to appear unimpressed.

It turned out the road they'd been following for the last fifteen minutes was not, as he'd assumed, a village thoroughfare, but was in fact the driveway to Izanami's house. A cart rumbled past them, wheels creaking over the gravel, and continued through the compound and out of sight around the corner of one of the buildings.

He'd been to the Hyuuga main house once, when the eldest girl was young and had very nearly been kidnapped. At the time he'd been just another ANBU and he hadn't really allowed himself the luxury of checking the place out, but what he remembered of the complex had been its sheer size and majesty, and this home rivalled the Hyuugas' in both arenas.

A low main building lay central to the complex; a pond complete with a shishi-odoshi had been cleverly built around and underneath one corner. Outbuildings spread off to each side - the closest one smelled of food and spices and his stomach rumbled of its own volition. He coughed, hoping to mask the sound, but a slow grin spread across Sakura's face and a worried look came to rest upon Akio's.

"Ah, Kakashi-san, I am a terrible host! I detained you for far too long and did not offer you refreshment." He sounded appalled at himself, but Kakashi waved it off.

"Don't trouble yourself, Akio-san. Truthfully I had forgotten, myself, it was the smell from the kitchens that reminded me we haven't eaten for a while." A while? Their last meal had been in the forest before they'd even entered the village. They'd gone without eating for nearly two days now.

"No, I shall arrange for food to be brought directly. Let us first enter the homestead and ask if Izanami is well enough to see us, and then we shall break your fast."

It was closer to dinner, but Kakashi was too tired to point out the other man's error. Also, Akio had started to remind him of Gai in a number of ways, and it was an unspoken rule amongst the jounins to just let Gai do as he wished, since resistance served only to fuel his passionate, outrageous ideas. Instead, he followed Akio up the wide wooden steps in silence and moved inside the almost daunting main house.

It was darker than he expected and it took a few seconds for his eye to adjust, accustoming itself to the surroundings with uncharacteristic slowness. He pressed surreptitiously against the side of his skull, quashing a nagging suspicion that something he'd feared would happen would soon come to pass. His right eye had done all the work for nearly twenty years now and it had placed an unbelievable strain on the organ, making him wonder more and more frequently if he was going to lose his vision, rendering this eye useless too. He made a brief mental note to train his chakra harder, because if that did end up happening, he'd need fuel for his Sharingan, which he'd never been able to switch off.

Sakura touched his arm and he shook himself from his musing. No point in worrying about what may never occur. He blinked and smiled down at her, an automatic response on his part, before he remembered he wasn't supposed to show approval at any point in this ridiculous plan. It was too late, however - the damage had been done. Tension he hadn't noticed was there lifted from her face as relief crossed her features. He felt bad for having treated her coldly, but she'd started a habit of making impetuous decisions and rushing into things, and it just wasn't a good trait for a ninja to have.

Although - an image of another young shinobi flashed through his mind - sometimes it wasn't so bad, after all.

He looked around. They were alone in a foyer of sorts, Akio having scurried off to collect Izanami and advise her of their arrival. Shoji walls hemmed them in at either side and the hall stretched out in front of them - dark, uninviting, and wide.

Sakura shivered, and brought her hands up to rub vigorously at her upper arms. "It's a bit depressing," she said, and he knew what she meant. The house was big and showy, but the emptiness was almost deafening and a tang of sickness hung in the air. It was a house that had tasted death once and knew more was on the way; the walls seemed almost to mourn and he wished they were back in the forest where the air was clean and everything was alive.

Judging by her expression, Sakura felt the same.

He was about to ask if she regretted her decision, but was interrupted by Akio's approach. Izanami trailed behind him demurely, looking much better than she had earlier in the day.

"--and her guardian, Kakashi-san." He seemed to be explaining their presence to her and Kakashi was thrown by her expression of mild confusion before remembering Akio's words from earlier. _Usually_, he had said, a look of sadness on his face, _she remembers nothing of what has taken place._

Great. So now they were camping out in the home of a sickly, unstable young woman who had no idea why they were there.

Akio and Izanami reached the foyer and stopped. Sakura dropped hastily into a curtsy of sorts while he just stood there as Izanami appraised them both. She flushed when her eyes reached his face and then glanced away, fiddling with her obi while Akio described what they'd be doing here.

"O-Of course," she stammered at the first lull in his overly wordy reasoning. He grinned, obviously relieved to have it all sorted out, then opened a nearby fusuma, announcing he was off to get some food for the weary travellers.

"If you could show Sakura-sama and Kakashi-san to their rooms?"

Izanami nodded faintly and he slid the door shut again, leaving them with their hostess for the very first time.

They shared a moment of awkward silence that stretched and lengthened into a minute, and then pressed onwards to two. Kakashi could be patient but Sakura could not, and she cleared her throat just as Izanami spoke.

"I'll show you to your rooms, then." Even her voice was frail - a strained whisper - but it was more than loud enough for the heavy air. He nodded and Sakura followed suit, before she offered clumsily,

"Um, thank you for your kindness, er...allowing us to stay here."

"Not at all," Izanami demurred and the girl fell silent, niceties having been observed.

Their gracious hostess led the way down the dark hallways, a long path of rice paper walls with a few corners here and there. They took a couple of turns and then she was opening a fusuma, gesturing politely to the side.

"This will be Sakura-sama's room," she said, moving aside, allowing Sakura entry to drop off her pack. Izanami continued without waiting and they set off down another corridor that seemed to go all the way to the other side of the house. He let them walk for a bit longer before asking, "Where are we going?"

Izanami faltered and turned, careful not to look at him.

"To your bedroom, Kakashi-sama." The honorific irritated him, but it was irrelevant for the moment. He needed to get something else sorted first.

"Why are we going to the other end of the house? Couldn't Sakura and I share a room?"

Sakura regarded the woman curiously - it looked like she hadn't thought it strange at first, but considered it odd now after his protest.

Izanami flushed, again, still unable to meet his eye. "Why, it's not proper!" she said, sounding scandalised.

Sakura gaped. "You think that Kakashi and I are...that we'd..." Her mouth moved but no sound came out, her lips unable to complete the thought.

The other woman straightened. "It doesn't matter what your relationship is, an unmarried man and woman cannot share a bedchamber!"

"Izanami-san." His voice was cold and she actually flinched, her posture drooping as she half-turned towards him. "Sakura-sama is my charge. I cannot protect her to the best of my ability if I am hidden away in a far corner of the house. We must either share a room, or - if that offends you - adjoining suites."

This old-world politeness was really giving him the shits. He was tired, starving and they were still arsing around with room allocations.

"Very well," she said, her face still red. "I will arrange for a screen to be brought to Sakura-sama's room, if you wish."

"Thank you," he replied, and they trudged back to where Sakura's pack had been left. He dropped his own off as well, and then finally - blessedly! - they went to get some food.

----

Sakura had expected Akio to grab them a snack of some description, but instead they were ushered into a formal dining room and asked to kneel. An obsequious servant brought them individual tables, then returned with a large tray that sat on little legs in the middle of the room. Mouth watering, she waited impatiently to be served and when it eventually came she looked down at her food with propriety intent...which changed rapidly to chagrin as soon as she saw what it was.

_Tempura._

She loved tempura. Fried food had always been her favourite, and was a luxury she often had to forgo in order to maintain peak fitness. The dish so temptingly placed in front of her looked to be scrumptiously cooked prawns with a selection of vegetables, all crisped to a light golden brown with a faint hint of steam rising off the plate. All in all, it looked perfect - and it wasn't just because she was ravenous - but she knew that to someone else, it looked perfectly _awful.  
_

Kakashi hated tempura. It was the one thing he'd cared to share with them, all those years ago. Sakura had thought him emotionless at the time, and the fact he felt so strongly about something as to actually admit to _disliking_ it had left such a strong impression she'd remembered it to this day.

Personally, she hated anything with too much spice. Her mother had packed a sachet of wasabi every day in her lunch for four years, and every day she'd unpack it and drop it in the bin on her way to the academy. She sympathised with Kakashi's current situation because she'd been there herself.

To his credit, he didn't let his revulsion show upon his face, instead downing the miso soup that accompanied the meal and asking for a second serving. His usual carefree half-smile creased his eye and graced his lips, and she thought again how lucky she was to be able to see him like this. She hid a grin at Izanami's discomfort from earlier - to think she hadn't wanted to let them share a room unchaperoned! He was her teacher, for goodness sake. They'd shared a bed on more than one occasion. It had never fazed her because she'd never thought of him as a man.

_Sakura, I know he's been the leader of your team for five years now, but it doesn't detract from the fact he's a very good-looking man. Maybe if you opened your eyes and actually looked at guys as guys for once, you'd see what I mean._

She snorted, garnering curious looks from all assembled. Kakashi, _good-looking?_ He certainly wasn't unattractive, and his physique - she'd noticed while dressing his wound - was lean and muscled. But it didn't help that he'd been her teacher, her superior, for five years. She had changed so much on the journey from child to teenager, but when she'd met him he had already been in that ageless category of _adult. _Kakashi had remained a constant, while she considered herself far removed from that immature girl of yore.

In fact, she was showing she still retained some of that girlish idiocy by even contemplating such a thing. What did it matter if she thought Kakashi was good-looking? He was her teacher, her sempai, a composed, elite, _mature_ jounin.

_Or maybe not_, she thought dryly, as he cast _Henge_ on his tempura, transforming them into grains of rice. _Perhaps I give him too much credit. _

----

Although he and Sakura were both keen to get started on Izanami's condition, she asked if it could wait until tomorrow. He acceded with ill grace - he wanted this over and done with - but they were imposing on her home and eating her food, so he wasn't really in a position to argue. Well...Sakura had eaten her food and he'd just played with his and willed himself full, but that wasn't really the point.

It was early evening by the time they finished with dinner. What a big day - the inn had burnt down at dawn; Akio kept them much of the day in his office; and then the walk to the compound and settling in had used up the remainder of the sunlit hours. The moon had only just risen but he was ready for bed, and judging by Sakura's unusual silence she felt much the same.

They returned to their bedroom and he noted with amusement that the futons had been moved to opposite sides, their edges flush against the walls. A large, ornate screen separated the two distinct halves, but it looked like it had been pulled from storage and the camphor smell of mothballs hung heavy in the air.

Sakura wrinkled her nose before going over to one of the futons and flopping heavily onto it, face squashed into the mattress.

"Ugh," she said, voice muffled into the pillow. "I hope I can sleep tonight with that horrible smell filling up the room."

He nodded even though she couldn't see him - the odour _was_ rather strong - then walked across and settled himself on the end of her futon, back against the wall, knees arched over her feet.

She shifted slightly as he sat but didn't roll over. "Kakashi," she said, and even through the pillow he could tell she was worried. "I don't know if I'm ready."

Her train of thought eluded him, but he had a fair idea of what was troubling her. "To what?"

"To face...him." The usual hesitation. Which one was he now, anyway? He looked like one person but acted like another, and just thinking the name conjured memories of all those people who had gone before. Orochimaru was no longer human; he was more a destructive force than person, and it was frightening just thinking about it. Would they ever be ready?

"That's okay," he said, and it was. All they could do was try to live as best and fiercely as possible. Maybe he shouldn't have been so hard on Sakura for wanting to stay here a little longer - if she could develop her skills then when it came time to battle their enemy, she'd be more prepared. He reached down and patted her leg reassuringly and she finally moved around, looking surprised for a moment before smiling crookedly up at him.

"Kakashi --" she started but was interrupted by a brisk knock on the fusuma before it slid soundlessly aside.

"Pardon the...intrusion..." Izanami trailed off, a blush staining her cheeks as she did her best to avoid looking directly at either of them.

"Yes?" he found himself asking coolly, taking a kind of perverse delight in their hostess' obvious discomfort. He liked shock tactics, which was partly why the _Icha Icha _series was never far from hand. It was satisfying having someone think something and then sending their preconceptions out the window. _And this one...well, this one's for the tempura._

"I. Er. I was...bath! I was coming to let you know where to find the bath. No doubt you would like to cleanse and refresh yourself after your long journey, and the bath would be excellent for that. Yes." She was letting her mouth run off while her eyes continued to dart over the walls, the screen - anywhere but at them.

Sakura took pity on her as she started describing the correct route to the bathroom and sat up, pulling her legs away from underneath his and then bringing her knees up to her chest. She looped an arm around her shins and smiled warmly at the other girl when she finished.

"Thank you, Izanami-san," she said, "We'll be sure to take advantage of your generosity."

"Not at all, Sakura-sama." She backed up and seemed ready to bolt. "I will see you in the morning. Good night."

She exited as abruptly as she'd come, leaving them alone once more. Sakura stretched languidly, stifling a groan.

"I hope you don't think me terribly dirty," and his mouth went dry, "but I couldn't be bothered to have a bath tonight."

He coughed. "A-Ah. Me either. I'd most likely fall asleep in the bath."

She yawned. "No likely about it for me. I'd definitely conk out. I think I'm just going to turn in right now." She waited and he wondered what for, before realising he was still perched on the end of the futon, preventing her from getting in.

_Whoops._ Choosing not to bring attention to this obvious blunder, he stretched also, removing the ludicrous eye patch and rubbing his face. "Good idea," he agreed, and got to his feet, moving behind the screen to the other futon, hitting the lights as he passed the switch. He pulled back the covers and crawled under them fully clothed, suddenly too exhausted to do anything else.

"G'night Kakashi," she murmured drowsily from across the room.

"Night," he replied, and let the events of the day catch up on him, sending him instantly into a deep and dreamless sleep.

----

The next day arrived as expected and with it came the sun, filtering down through a high window and waking Sakura up. She rolled over and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. What was she - _ah, yes._ She knew where she was, this time, and the morning was going to be an interesting one - of that, she was certain.

Softly, so as not to wake Kakashi, she pulled a few necessities from her pack and bundled them up, tiptoeing to the door. She let herself out and moved swiftly down the corridor, following Izanami's half-remembered instructions from the night before. The "dirty-girl" remark Izanami had made in the office still smarted, and she was determined not to be considered as such again.

She found the bath with minor difficulties, taking only two wrong turns, but after backtracking and retracing her steps she happened across the neatly labelled room. Walking in, she found the tub clean and inviting, and wasted no time in drawing the water and settling in to soak.

She was there for some time, lost in a bliss of warm water, soap and utter relaxation as the bath unknotted muscles and soothed the tension from her body - until a timid knock sounded on the door. _Geez_, she thought irritably, sinking further under the water, _doesn't anyone here have anything better to do?_

"Yes?" she called out, voice ringing in the tiled room.

"Sakura-sama?" It was Akio, by the sounds of it. Was it his day off? He'd told them last night he had an apartment in the village, so surely he hadn't stayed over, if Izanami's reluctance to have unmarried couples in the same room was anything to go by. But then again, perhaps it was different if they were betrothed. She'd have to check that one with Kakashi.

"Yes?" she said again, as it appeared he was waiting for an answer.

"Will you be coming out soon? I would like to talk to you about the process, and Kakashi-san would very much like to do his ablutions as well."

"Don't rush on my account." Kakashi's tone was dry but it forced her upright, warmth flooding her face. Of course he wanted a bath too. How selfish of her to keep the tub all to herself.

"Ah, just a minute!" She rinsed hurriedly and toweled herself off, pulling on underwear and a thin yukata that had been thoughtfully left on the basin. She gathered up her soiled clothes and opened the door, moving aside to let Kakashi through.

"Why, thank you," he said, still sounding amused, and she glared at him, slightly embarrassed.

"If you wanted me out, you should have said so," she hissed, but he just smiled infuriatingly and waved it off.

"I was happy to hang around until you were ready - it was poor old Akio that couldn't wait to haul you from the water."

Chuckling, he slid the door shut, and she considered fuming but decided against it, as she'd need the energy for later. She turned to see what Akio had wanted and found him blinking rapidly, still recovering from Kakashi's parting shot.

"B-But S-Sakura-sama, that is not at all what I said!"

She sighed and patted him on the arm, walking off and waiting for him to follow. "Ignore him, Akio-san. He was just having fun."

"But--"

"No, really." She cut off his protests with a resigned smile. "I'm used to it by now. Don't worry, he didn't mean anything by it."

He looked far from convinced, but apparently didn't want to press the issue further. "If you say so, Sakura-sama."

The reached the room and stepped inside, Sakura moving to her pack and extracting the last of her clean clothes. _Well, semi-clean_, she thought, regarding them mournfully. Kakashi had wanted to pick up some supplies but they'd never gotten a chance what with the previous day's excitement. Maybe he could go into the village and buy some while she had a look at Izanami.

She turned to ask Akio what had become of the innkeeper, the guests, and little Masa-chan, only to find him holding one of her blue information scrolls, turning it over in his hands curiously. He noticed her gaze and put it down hastily, before asking, "What do they do?"

"Any number of things." She reached out and took the one he'd been looking at. "This is a mission scroll. It has information pertaining to a particular mission written inside of it in code. That one," she pointed to a larger, red scroll that poked out of the pack, "is a summoning scroll. Tsunade-san wrote that one..."

She trailed off as he regarded her oddly, realising she'd nearly blown their cover. "Actually, I'm not sure what that one does," she confessed, hoping to smooth over by appearing as though she'd pretended to know more than she did. "Kakashi was telling me some of his ninja stuff to pass the time and I guess I've forgotten most of it." She gave a self-depreciating laugh and tapped her head like she was an idiot.

He didn't seem to notice, his attention on the scrolls once more. "So these are...ninja techniques?"

"Well, yes, I guess." She returned carefully to explanation mode, hoping to avoid another near slip. "Scrolls can be used in a variety of ways. Some can, as I said, just contain information, some trigger jutsu - or, techniques, some summon animal familiars," his eyebrows rose sharply at that one, "and some are spells within themselves, and merely opening them will be enough to set off whatever is inscribed into the parchment."

He backed away from the scrolls, lying in deceptive innocence on her futon, and she thought that it was probably the right thing to do. Shinobi items were not safe in the hands of ordinary citizens, but she hoped she'd been able to appease his curiosity at least.

"I see," he said thoughtfully as Kakashi returned to the room. His hair was damp from the bath and flopped down over his forehead, and she found herself noting the contrast between the dark strands and his fair skin. He felt her gaze and gave her an inquisitive look; she shook her head and returned to the pack, putting away the last few items then standing up.

"Well!" she said brightly, for want of anything better to say. "If Izanami-san is awake, I might go get started. No time like the present, I always say."

"You do?" Kakashi asked incredulously, coming back from his side and leaning against the screen.

"Yes," she said, defiant, picking some lint off her shirt. "And...did you want to get some supplies today?"

If he was amused by her rapid change of subject, he didn't show it, and instead nodded thoughtfully. "If you're going to be working with Izanami-san, I might as well." His eye moved to Akio, who had remained silent throughout their exchange. "Will you be returning to the village, Akio?"

The policemen started. "Ah, yes, Kakashi-san. Perhaps we could acccompany one another there?"

"That would be simply wonderful," he deadpanned, and Sakura hid a grin, knowing the other man would fail to pick up the subtle jab.

"Well...see you later," she said awkwardly when no one moved to leave. She went to go and Kakashi stopped her, laying one hand on her shoulder.

"Be careful." His face was serious now, all traces of his good mood gone. She swallowed and nodded, finding herself wishing for his smile to come back. _Silly, _she thought, squashing the idea as soon as it surfaced, before trudging off down the corridor to Izanami's room.

----

She really hated this giant, confusing house, Sakura thought, some time later. It had taken her considerably longer to hunt down Izanami than it had to find the bathroom and she wished for one of the servants that she _knew_ were loitering to come out of the shadows and give her directions.

They didn't, of course, so she persevered and eventually found herself outside a pair of elegantly decorated doors.

"Izanami-san?"

A rustle of fabric and then the doors slid open, revealing the woman's pale face.

"Sakura-sama." She beckoned her inside, and hiding her sudden gaucheness, Sakura moved inside the room.

It was warm in there - too warm, she thought, noting a brazier in one corner and a kotatsu in the middle. She knew the girl was ill but too much heat was never a good thing, and she'd be advising to cut back after she knew more about the sickness.

Izanami had seated herself gracefully, kneeling and looking up at Sakura expectantly. She crossed the room and sat down too, opting for a sort of cross-legged squat for more mobility.

"Um," she said, wondering how to go about this. She felt suddenly ugly and uncouth in the presence of such a refined woman, and it occurred to her that despite looking a bit peaky and somewhat wan, Izanami was actually rather pretty. She had long, straight hair and dark eyes, and Sakura wondered fleetingly if men found women like Izanami irresistible, with her genteel views and serene disposition. Next to her Sakura felt rough and grubby, a child again. Would men think Izanami was beautiful?

Would Kakashi think Izanami was beautiful?

_Gah! _She berated herself for her random train of thought and wondered angrily why she was thinking such a thing anyway, since the woman was plainly spoken for and it didn't matter to her in the least who Kakashi found attractive.

"Is something the matter, Sakura-sama?" Izanami's soft voice intruded on her ridiculous thoughts and she accepted the interruption gratefully.

"No, not at all. And please, Sakura is fine." Much more of this 'sama' business and she'd go insane.

Izanami looked dubious but agreed anyway. "If you wish..."

"Okay," Sakura said and Izanami fell silent again, her large eyes wide and almost fearful. "What I'm going to do now is investigate your body with a healing light, which will move through your flesh and organs to identify the sickness."

The other woman nodded and swallowed bravely. "Will it hurt?"

Sakura tilted her head. Hmm...she hoped not. "Nope," she said reassuringly, "it will feel a bit strange, but bear with it the best you can. If you get too uncomfortable, let me know and we'll stop, okay?"

Relieved at having been given an out, Izanami nodded. "So, I just sit here?"

"Yup." Sakura settled herself fully into a cross-legged position and reached out, letting her hands rest lightly atop Izanami's head. "Now, just relax."

And then she was off. The chakra she'd gathered into her palms glowed a faint blue in the stuffy air then entered Izanami's skull and moved down through her body. It was different from last time - instead of many smaller chakra soldiers, she settled instead for three larger ones that moved together through Izanami's head and then diverged at her neck. One continued down through her chest and torso while the other two took one arm each, travelling slowly, right to the tips of her fingers before retracing their path and slipping down to her groin then continuing on to her feet.

Once they'd completed a first pass, she got them to return for a second, and then once more for a third. She broke the contact after that, sliding limply to the side with sweat pouring off her, feeling like she'd just run ten laps of Konoha.

Izanami sat up, coughing slightly. She dabbed at her mouth with a handkerchief pulled from a fold in her kimono and waited for Sakura to catch her breath, before asking, "Well? What did you find?"

Sakura rubbed violently at her eyes with a fisted hand and tried to collect her thoughts. What a good question. _What _did _I find?_

"Well," she said, stalling, "I can't exactly be sure. Would you mind if I returned to my room and made some notes? I'll let you know what I come up with as soon as possible."

The other woman seemed unsurprised, as if she'd been expecting something like this. "Of course," she said civilly, rising and showing Sakura to the door. "I look forward to your findings."

Sakura smiled faintly and set off down the corridor, hoping her feet knew the way. This was strange and disturbing, and she had no idea what to think.

Because although the woman had a steady, beating heart, was patently breathing and seemed reasonably able to move around, her trusted chakra soldiers had all told her the same thing.

Izanami was already dead.

---------------

----------

----

Notes on terms:

Most of you will probably already know most of these - I did, which is why I used them, but I had a couple of issues during beta so here's a quick translation guide to a few of the Japanese words I used in the chapter.

_shoji_ - rice paper walls that many traditional homes use  
_fusuma_ - rice paper sliding doors  
_kotatsu_ - a low table with a heating element in the middle  
_shishi-odoshi_ - also called a "deer scarer", but that sounded dumb so I chose the original name. It's a hollow bamboo tube water feature that fills up with water and then gonks down onto another piece of bamboo, making a rhythmic thumping noise that I personally find annoying but is apparently soothing for meditation. There's one in every second episode of Kenshin, and many other anime use them too  
_tempura_ - battered, deep fried pieces of meat

Which brings me to my other point: The official data book lists Kakashi's most disliked food as tempura, something I incorrectly remembered him saying in that episode where Team Seven was formed and he asked for their likes and dislikes. It was only later I recalled he said he had "no intention of telling them his likes and dislikes". So, my bad. It's technically canon, but just pretend he told them that all the way back then. (Incidentally, Sakura dislikes anything really spicy, which is what prompted the wasabi comment).

Thanks to darkenedsakura, nushi and icarust for their feedback. I love you guys!

EDIT: I DON'T love ff net.I'm terribly sorry to the people who've received several notification emails as this is the THIRD time I've uploaded this chapter. I really hope it works this time, because I won't be home from work for another 14 hours, and if that's the case I'll be royally pissed. Thanks for having the patience to keep checking on this, and ta also to those of you who let me know the chapter hadn't uploaded properly. Gah.


	10. Feeling

Chapter ten  
Feeling

----

Kakashi and Akio made their way to the village shortly after Sakura left to examine Izanami. Her fiancé seemed to need distraction from the proceedings and it looked like Kakashi had drawn the proverbial short straw.

He would have sighed at his unfortunate situation but over the years he'd developed a tolerance for overbearing, hyperactive and talkative people. In fact he actually counted his blessings that the policeman only slotted into one of those categories, as_ some_ people he knew were most definitely in all three.

"Shall we go, then?" he asked finally, after watching Akio fret for a while. He was sympathetic to the other man's plight but could only take so much pacing.

"Ah, yes," Akio replied, moving quickly out the door and off down the corridor. Kakashi double-checked he had everything he needed then followed suit. It was much easier to navigate the large and convoluted house with a guide and so they reached the foyer in what seemed like no time.

"Have you eaten, or are you hungry?" Akio paused before leaving and fixed Kakashi with a questioning look, apparently determined not to be a bad host this time around.

"I'm not sure," Kakashi hedged, not wanting a repeat of the tempura incident. "What were you suggesting?"

Akio considered. "Well, usually the cook has some pork buns made up, in case Izanami requires sustenance."

"Then yes, I am hungry." Kakashi tried to ignore the other man's increasingly formal speech pattern because he knew that if he thought about it too much, a headache would most certainly ensue.

They dropped into the kitchen on the way out and palmed a couple of the buns, and then they were finally out and off down the long drive. Considerably less tired and nowhere near as hungry as he'd been last night, Kakashi took the opportunity to soak in his surroundings this time, noting well-kept gardens and pathways snaking off to each side. The estate was beautifully tended and he expected it required a goodly amount for upkeep...so how exactly had a small town police officer managed to marry himself into such a rich family?

Akio followed Kakashi's gaze and gave a tight smile. "It is difficult for simple men like ourselves to become comfortable in such majestic surrounds as these, no? I often feel out of my depth at the estate. My apartment is only slightly larger than the front room here."

Kakashi compared the foyer to his own home and concluded they too were of similar size. He hadn't really noticed it before since all his apartment provided was a place to eat and sleep. More often than not he was out training or on missions so there had been no need for a large or comfortable home.

"I expect Sakura-sama's house is much the same?"

He started. _That's right._ "Yes, the estate is - was, perhaps - as big as this one, but the actual homestead's a different design. Not so...traditional." In fact the Harunos' split level was only a few times the size of his own flat, but he took creative licence and stuck to their story.

Akio nodded, still with that same tight smile. "The Hirogaris are a rather traditional family. My father was the mayor of Ontou when I was born and Izanami's father, seeking a favourable alliance, petitioned for us to be trothed. It was a pleasing arrangement to both parties before my father fell out of favour with the Tsuchikage and lost his position."

He didn't offer a reason for the falling out; Kakashi didn't ask for one.

"Izanami's father became desirous of obtaining another suitor for her, and would most certainly have called off the engagement had he not died before he was able to do so." His pace slowed until he stopped and Kakashi paused also.

"How did he die?"

Catching himself, Akio let out a short bark of laughter, and started walking again. "Ah, it was nothing suspicious. He was thrown from a horse while out checking the property and was left there until nightfall before someone thought to go looking. The entire household was dispatched for the search but it was Izanami who found him first. She stumbled upon his body down in a far corner of the garden and became ill for the first time that very night." His eyes flashed with pain and Kakashi looked away, unwilling to intrude upon his memories.

"And so the engagement was never cancelled. Despite my family's loss of station, Izanami confided in me that she would accept no other suitor. She loves me for myself, which I am forever grateful for. I cannot ever repay her generosity or selflessness, no matter how I try to improve myself."

Well, that went a long way toward explaining his awkward and formal speech pattern. The poor boy was just trying too hard.

"That is why I must thank you and Sakura-sama for giving your time and seeing if you can help Izanami. If anyone does not deserve the lot life has dealt them, it is my innocent and benevolent fiancée."

Kakashi had a great deal to say on the unjust and capricious nature of life, but he held his tongue. Nothing would come of comparing tragedies; he doubted the other man would understand anyway. And then he found he didn't have to say anything at all, because they'd reached the village and it was time to go their separate ways.

"Thank you for allowing me to accompany you, Kakashi-san. I hope I was not too supercilious in my companionship."

"Not at all," he said, inwardly flinching but outwardly smiling and shooing the policeman off. "You go and run your errands and I'll take care of mine."

Akio nodded dubiously but left after reminding Kakashi he'd have to remember the way back on his own. Kakashi in turn assured him it was no problem - and it wasn't, he was a ninja after all - and projected an aura of confidence as best he could. When the policeman finally walked off down the street, Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief, grateful to be alone once more. He was nice enough, really...but just a bit too much.

And now he was free to stock up on things they'd need for when they got back on the road - which, if Kakashi had his way, would be sooner rather than later.

----

Shops lined the streets but he heard strains of a market drifting through gaps in the buildings so he followed the sounds until he found himself in a bustling square. Vendors hemmed him in at all sides and the press of people was a slight annoyance, but least he was in the right place.

"Fancy a sea bass?" a fishmonger bellowed right next to him, holding up a large fish that glinted wetly in the sun. "I've got plenty, going for a good price! Just right for dinner, so fresh you'll think it jumped right onto your plate!"

Kakashi stared at the fish for a good thirty seconds, then let his eye travel ever so slowly up to the man's face. The fishmonger fidgeted under Kakashi's gaze and looked away first, spotting another potential customer. "Now _you_, fine miss, you look like you want a sea bass!"

"I do?" he heard the lady say behind him as he walked away. He wondered idly why they bothered with ocean fish when there was a more than satisfactory river not too far away, but put it down to the old grass is always greener adage. Everyone always wanted what they just couldn't have.

For the first time the thought struck him as odd, but he dismissed it a second later, coming across a stall that looked to be overflowing with second-hand clothes. He hoped Sakura had no objections about wearing pre-owned things, but if she did it was just too bad. The Hokage had conveniently forgotten to provide him with funds for this "mission" - and he had a sneaking suspicion Tsunade _really_ shouldn't have been put in charge of the town treasury - so the only bit of cash he'd manage to scrounge up was entirely his own. Luckily he'd had a few weeks' wages sitting at home, because he hadn't had the time or foresight to visit the bank before leaving. For some reason bringing a larger sum of money hadn't occurred to him, but then again most missions were much shorter and did not involve trips to market.

"Good day sir," said the less obnoxious vendor behind the clothing stall. "Can I help you with anything this morning?"

Kakashi eyed the clothing. "I think you just might be able to." He explained what he needed and the stall owner came around to his side, helping him rifle through the assortment of clothes. He settled upon a few items and handed over the amount required after engaging in a bit of friendly haggling.

Actually he was deathly serious about the haggling, but the Yamanaka man who owned the flower shop had told him once that most shopkeepers liked friendly customers, and it never hurted to go that extra step.

Once his purchases had been wrapped up he thanked the man and left, walking for a while before stopping and wondering where to go for noodle mix.

"Makoto-san!' a loud voice called very close to his ear. He scowled and moved away a bit. Most of the market chatter had faded off into background noise but this booming voice was strangely piercing with its volume.

"Makoto-san!" It came again and he looked up, hoping to see this Makoto-san since he was now tempted to tell him to be a bit more aware next time. He found himself staring at a great burly man whose swarthy features jogged a memory, and he suddenly recalled telling a similar looking man his assumed name only a couple of days prior.

_Makoto-san_, he told himself silently_, be a bit more aware next time._

"Innkeeper-san," he returned brightly. What had Izanami said his name was? "Ah, no, it was Taro-san, wasn't it?"

"Good job," the other man replied with a hearty guffaw, bringing a meaty arm up to pat him on the shoulder. He fought to remain upright under the gentle tap and thanked his lucky stars Taro had gone into hospitality instead of following his calling and becoming a shinobi.

He smiled and nodded and they stayed like that for a moment, until it became awkward. Taro cleared his throat as he dropped his hand. "Look, mate, just wanted to thank you for saving my arse back there. I thought I'd done my dash and my only regret was sweet little Masa-chan not being able to get out. But then you appeared from nowhere and saved the day, like one of them bloody superheroes you read about when you're a kid!"

Sobriety, it appeared, made the man no more charming, but his appreciation was genuine and Kakashi couldn't help but laugh. "Truly, it was no trouble. I'm just glad everyone was saved."

A shadow crossed the big man's jovial face and he instantly doubted his own words. "Did I miss someone?" Kakashi ground out harshly, afraid to learn the answer. If only he'd been faster, if only he'd used a less violent method for dousing the flames, if only --

"No mate, you managed to get everyone out of the fire, no blame on you at all!"

He waited.

"It was just Fudo-san, the old drunkard, got himself up and missing after everything went down. No one's seen hide nor hair of him since you brought him out. I had to say a few things to the cops, and then I looked around and the bastard was gone."

Kakashi repressed a wince at the butchered language but the term seemed almost affectionate and he wondered suddenly what he'd prefer, the cheery rudeness of Taro, or Akio's stilted politeness. _Hmm, tough call_.

"Ninja-san!" He was distracted from further contemplation by the happy voice of the innkeeper's tagalong, who bounded up to them from another stall.

"Hello, Masa-chan." He smiled down at the child - the _girl_, he reminded himself - and asked her how she was going.

"I'm fine and so is papa, thanks to you and the pretty lady!" Pretty lady? _Oh, Sakura_. He froze for a moment, remembering those same words from another mouth, in what was starting to feel like another time.

_She's almost pretty, isn't she?_

Strange how all these people were commenting on Sakura's attractiveness. He thought she looked nice because he was viewing her through the biased eyes of a longtime teacher, but maybe it wasn't the case. Lee and Naruto used to fight over her, after all.

And Sasuke had never even given her the time of day.

He cracked a finger joint with the pad of one thumb and kept the smile going strong. "I'll let her know, Masa-chan. Look after your papa for me, okay?"

"Un!" The girl nodded, eyes wide.

He was about to continue on his way when a thought struck him. He swivelled slowly, almost slyly, and asked the innkeeper, "Seeing as you're in the food industry and all, can you let me in on the best place to get trail packs from?"

Taro returned his look shrewdly, a calculating smile appearing on his face. "I see you're a man who appreciates a bargain. Come with me, mate, and watch and learn."

He beckoned and Kakashi followed, thinking that maybe, just maybe, his small supply of coins would hold.

----

"Dammit, not this one either!" Sakura flung the last of the medic-scrolls she'd brought with her across the room, where it breached the rice paper and lodged itself in the wall. _Oops._ She got up and pulled it out, smoothing the torn edges back into place. It took a while, but she kept going until it looked just right, and only someone who was looking for the flaw would notice. Sighing, she flopped down onto the futon and racked her brain for something - anything - to explain why Izanami's body felt like a corpse.

It just didn't add up. She was warm to the touch, and although sickly, seemed to be breathing evenly and regularly. Blood was obviously being pumped through her veins as no appendages had dropped off yet, and it was only recently that Sakura had been admiring Izanami's hair, which had a gloss not usually associated with the dead. Something had gone horribly wrong somewhere, and she just didn't know what it could be.

So what to do, what to say? She wasn't a quitter and she'd definitely keep trying, but it was a matter of delicate wording to somehow omit the overwhelming presence of _death_ from her report to Izanami.

No, maybe she was just confused. She'd been sorting out too many bruises and scrapes at the hospital, she was just out of practice, that was all. Her crazy chakra didn't know what it was doing, so she'd need to do some meditation tonight and sort it all out.

In fact, why wait until tonight? She was already alone, and she was less likely to be distracted while Kakashi was still in town. She got up off the futon and settled herself on the tatami, reverting to the cross-legged position she favoured for concentration. Allowing her hands to rest loosely on her knees, she spiralled down to the core where her chakra seethed and roiled.

_Be calm_, she told it, and it obeyed, smoothing out into a shimmering blue sphere that bobbed and hovered in a sea of black. She rose slightly until the chakra was out of sight, and darkness blanketed her, soft and warm.

She breathed steadily, a sense of peace overtaking her, easing the worries from her mind. She waited for something to come to her: a forgotten jutsu, a snatch of conversation with Tsunade, anything. But though she sat there as long as she could, no answers miraculously appeared.

Eventually she sighed and opened her eyes. It was early afternoon now; the sun had crossed the sky and was angling in through the window behind her. She hadn't remembered anything useful but the sense of peace remained, and she vowed to calmly and rationally put today's confusing effort from her mind and make a fresh start by trying again tomorrow.

She was just standing up when the fusuma slid open and Kakashi let himself in.

"Ah, you startled me," she said, and she really must have been deep in thought to not detect his returning chakra.

He gave her an unreadable look before depositing his packages on the floor at the end of his futon.

"Supplies?" she guessed and he nodded, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.

"How did it go today?"

She sighed. Trust Kakashi to skip the small talk. "It went...okay."

He continued to give her the unreadable look but truthfully she didn't know what else to say. It was ludicrous to admit that her patient felt _dead_, and she'd wanted this opportunity to prove to Kakashi that she was valuable to him. _To the team_, she amended, and looked down at her feet.

"What happened to the wall?" he asked.

She flushed. Trust Kakashi to skip the small talk _and_ see the tiny rent in the wallpaper from right across the room. "I had an accident."

"Hmm."

They stood in silence for a bit longer, and she decided - not for the first time - he'd be a terrible man to have as an enemy. He had an uncanny ability to make people uncomfortable, and managed to do so without any apparent effort on his part. Sometimes she forgot he was a powerful and feared ninja. He'd always been irresponsible Kakashi-sensei; it was only recently he'd graduated to her protector, Kakashi. Their changing relationship was one she still didn't understand, and she thought it might be because she didn't want to. Their dynamic was something she'd taken for granted and her world could only handle being turned about so many times.

To her relief a gong sounded somewhere in the house and she straightened, the moment over.

"Dinner's ready!" she joked but he didn't crack a smile. "Hope it's tempura," she added and this time, managed to get a reluctant laugh. He pushed off from the wall and went to the door, motioning for her to go through first. She stepped through, feeling oddly relieved.

"Hope it's spicy," he taunted back, and she stuck her tongue out at him before making off to the dining room.

No, there was nothing to worry about. All was well. She'd somehow made a mistake, but she would definitely fix it tomorrow.

----

She didn't fix it tomorrow. Or the next day, or the next day, or the next. In fact a week passed and she could still determine nothing further than her original evaluation. Despite using different techniques they had all resolutely told her the same thing.

Izanami was still dead.

_More dead_, if her senses weren't deceiving her, though they more than likely were. The girl's body seemed to be deteriorating rapidly, tissue becoming soggy and ripe. To the naked eye Izanami was merely frail and ill, but to Sakura's chakra soldiers she was already a corpse, decomposing and bloating as if left under the sun.

It was an unsubtle reminder that she'd made no progress, and the juxtaposition of healthy against dead had become no less obvious.

Izanami coughed, startling her from her reverie. "Sakura, perhaps that is enough for today."

"A-Ah." Sakura bowed her head. Another wasted day that served only to exhaust her patient. She didn't want to face Akio either; knowing he was waiting outside expectantly made her feet drag as she walked to the door.

"Sakura." She turned, one hand on the handle, waiting for Izanami to speak. "I have a feeling all will be resolved tomorrow."

"That's good," she enthused, pushing down her skepticism. At this rate there was going to be nothing special about tomorrow.

"Indeed," Izanami replied, with a strange and secretive smile. Sakura hoped she wasn't going into one of her fits again - she wasn't sure what effect that had on the girl's body and mind. In fact, maybe the madness had something to do with this odd duality, a possibility she hadn't considered before.

_Right, this might just work_. She nodded to herself and slid the door wide, exiting down the corridor towards her room with purposeful steps. She saw Akio hovering but gave him a brisk shake of her head and a "Not now," before continuing on her way. She'd need paper, and a pen, and a fair chunk of time, but if this worked out she'd have solved this mystery once and for all.

----

Kakashi was bored. _Really _bored.

If they weren't still in a danger zone he'd wish for hordes of enemy-nin to leap out of nowhere and engage him in battle. As it was, even he considered that in bad taste and put the idea from his mind, tempting though it may be.

He considered reading _Icha Icha Paradise_ again, and did so, on the fourth day, but with no one around to be outraged the book was almost dull. No offence to Jiraiya, of course - the man was an excellent writer who employed wit and innuendo to their full potential - but he _had_ already finished it a couple of hundred times.

And this was volume five.

He was tempted to whip it out next time he saw Akio, but he'd probably give the poor man an aneurysm, and he couldn't very well do that. So he tried to combat his increasing restlessness by spending as much time out of doors as possible. He roamed the gardens, scaled the trees, and even engaged in a bit of kata before moving on to more strenuous training.

_Nine hundred and ninety-six._

It was nice outside.

_Nine hundred and ninety-seven._

The air was clear and he felt at ease.

_Nine hundred and ninety-eight._

He could stop thinking about why Sakura was looking so downtrodden and exhausted.

_Nine hundred and ninety-nine._

"Kakashi-san!"

_One thousand._

He sighed and let his right hand drop to the ground, flattening the palm of his left from where he'd been balanced on one finger. He pushed up from the dirt and levered himself upright, reverting to a standing position as Akio trotted over.

"Is that a requirement of ninja training?" the policeman asked, looking impressed.

"No. It's just something I do to pass my time." _And _how_ I have time to pass._

"Ah, so." Akio nodded, still marvelling. "And with one finger!"

Not knowing the correct response to that, Kakashi said nothing and waited for the other man to explain his presence. He had dropped in frequently for dinner over the past week but had not made another daytime appearance and Kakashi had supposed he'd been working. It looked like it was a day off now and he wondered what it would be like having a regular job instead of living as a shinobi.

There'd be security, surely, no living each day to the next. It'd be a steady income, as opposed to a small retainer and bonuses for completed missions. He'd have more of an opportunity to befriend people on their own merits, instead of forced camaraderie where he blindly trusted others, every person putting their life in another's hands. Maybe he'd even have an opportunity to find a girl and settle down into a comfortable married existence, like the one that awaited Akio.

Yeah. That'd be nice.

But...if he lived an easy, simple life, he wouldn't be the man he was today. He wouldn't have been shaped by his experiences, wouldn't have lived through the good times and the bad. He wouldn't have endured the pain that defined him, wouldn't have met the precious people that made it all worthwhile.

And he certainly wouldn't be here, with Sakura, now.

So he dismissed the idle fantasy, because he couldn't change the past. The future was in his hands and it was up to him to make it a good one.

"--Kakashi-san?"

_Oh_. Akio had been speaking. "I'm sorry, Akio. I was just --" _dreaming? _"--distracted for a minute. What were you saying?"

The other man repeated himself patiently. "I was wondering if you would care to take a stroll around the gardens with me?"

Well, not like he had anything better to do. "Sure."

----

"So when's the wedding?" Kakashi asked some time later, as they followed a pebbled path that wound around the back of the house. Ferns dangled their fronds over the edges and wild violets ran free, dotting the landscape with vibrant colour. He found it very relaxing and wished he'd discovered this part of the garden earlier.

Beside him, Akio sighed. "Technically, we could have been married at any point in the last six months. Izanami has been of age since March."

Kakashi blinked. Of age? Izanami was only eighteen? Sakura was seventeen, and she seemed so much younger. Or did she...maybe she was just as mature as Izanami but Kakashi had continued to keep her neatly labelled as a "child", and he just hadn't allowed himself to see how much she'd grown.

He shook himself. "Then why the delay?"

Akio looked off through the line of trees. "I wanted to wait until she was better. Her moments of madness worry me and I did not want her to go through any changes until she was well enough to do so."

Kakashi nodded but he was still distracted by Izanami's relative youth. If she was eighteen, then how old was Akio?

"Is Sakura-sama betrothed?" The policeman seemed to want to change the subject and Kakashi let him, answering without thinking.

"No, she isn't." The very idea was almost amusing. Who would she marry? _Naruto?_

"How surprising. I would have thought the heir to a family such as her own would have been plighted at birth. Ah well, perhaps she will marry soon, if she finds a man suitable for a young lady of Sakura-sama's calibre."

"There is no such man."

His response was immediate and surprised them both; he glanced away, unwilling to let Akio see the astonishment on his face.

That was rather..._protective_ of him. It had almost sounded like he had some stake in the matter - like her father, perhaps, and he definitely wasn't old enough for that.

A brother, maybe? He'd never had siblings, and the more recent generations of Konoha had been predominately only children, precious beyond words to their families and loved ones. He'd admit under duress to possibly considering Naruto as an annoying younger brother, but felt he viewed Sakura differently.

What then? If not a sister...something more?

He stopped walking, horrified. Akio paused also but he didn't notice, lost as he was in this sudden, insistent, _terrifying_ thought.

_Did he have feelings for Sakura?_

No. Of course not. It was preposterous, absurd. He was nearly twice her age, embittered and world-weary. She was fresh, far too naive, and very young. There was no way he could have feelings of anything beyond friendship for his seventeen-year-old student.

Even if that would explain an awful lot.

Like how he'd caved and let her remain here, practicing on Izanami. If someone else - Naruto, say - had suggested it, they wouldn't have stayed even a night. Or how he'd let that imposter get close enough to touch him, almost as if he'd wanted Sakura to act that way. Or even how he'd agreed to leave the village with her in the first place, knowing full well what he was getting himself into.

No. Yes? It was all too confusing. It was a question he hadn't wished to come to, but one that now had surfaced, refused to go away. It was plausible enough to be a possibility and disturbed and thrilled him all at the same time. It was almost very wrong but very nearly right.

So, what if he did think of Sakura as something aside from a teammate, a student or a friend? Maybe the real question was...what did Sakura think of him?

"Kakashi-san?"

He blinked and the spell was broken; he was back in the real world where silly thoughts like these ones didn't belong. He repressed the desire to indulge further in such pointless idiocy and looked back at Akio.

"Yes?"

The policeman appeared confused and he felt a bit remorseful for having tuned out on him again. Possibly Akio had been talking about something important and he'd gone and missed the whole thing.

Akio tried again. "Do you...smell something?"

He raised a quizzical eyebrow at that, but shrugged and took a deep breath through his nose anyway, to see what the other man meant.

A foul odour had indeed permeated the air and mingled with the sugar tang of violets that had, until now, drowned out all else. The combined stench was sickly sweet, like overripe fruit and fertilizer mixed with rotten eggs. He coughed and looked about for the source - surely it couldn't be too far off if the smell was this strong. He set off in the direction of a nearby cypress, and stopped just before stepping on something lying on the ground, protruding from behind the bole.

He looked down to see what it could be and upon identifying it, paled and froze. Behind him Akio let out a cry and rushed forwards, pushing past him and falling to his knees beside the tree. Kakashi stared a little longer at the limp object in front of him and waited for his brain to catch up and tell him what he was seeing couldn't possibly be real.

His brain refused to heed him and said nothing of the sort. Numbly he reached up to peel off his eye patch, then scanned the scene to remove any doubt. The tomoe spun; Akio keened, and the truth hit home with irrefutable proof.

He'd nearly stepped on the hand of a bloated corpse that he recognised as belonging to none other than their hostess, Izanami.

His mind went blank. This made no sense. He had seen her only last night, there was no way she could have managed to up and die in such a short time. Sakura had spent most of the evening working furiously on some new idea to heal her - there'd be no point in healing someone already dead.

Something was off, in more ways than one. He forced his brain to cooperate, to figure things out; this time his mind obeyed him, and then it clicked. His blood ran cold.

"Akio," he said sharply, and it acted like a slap, rousing the other man from the immediate and consuming grief. His shoulders stopped shaking, and Kakashi knew he was listening. "You're a police officer, have you never seen a dead body before?" His words were cold; they were harsh and he knew it, but something like it needed to be said.

Akio looked at him, betrayal writ across his face. _You are heartless_, his eyes said, and Kakashi could only agree.

"Well?" he ground out, willing the other man to follow his train of thought.

"I have," Akio said brokenly, his voice cracking. "But never the body of my only love."

_Ouch._ "Then look closely." _Listen to what I'm saying. _Somehow he'd landed the role of the villain again and he was really getting sick of having to be cruel to be kind. "I know you don't want to, but you must."

The policeman rubbed at his face and Kakashi tried to ignore the telltale wetness that lingered around Akio's eyes. He watched as the other man inched forward, crawling across the ground, one hand then another bringing him closer to his once-fiancée.

"Notice anything?" Kakashi asked, more to distract himself than anything else. The smell of death was everywhere, the familiar reek weighting the air and pressing down upon him. It was hard to draw breath and he could feel pinpricks of sweat beading his forehead, trickling their way down over his exposed face.

Below him Akio stopped a hand's breadth from the corpse. He shook his head, still too distraught.

"Look closer, then," Kakashi continued, relentless, impatience in his tone. "The body is old; you can tell that it must have been out here for weeks." He gestured to the mottled flesh, the bloated skin, then waved to incorporate the oppressive, intense smell. "What does this tell you?"

Again, all Akio could do was shake his head, tears now running freely down his cheeks.

Kakashi clenched his fists as his logic came full circle. "If the corpse is rotting, a sign of having been here a long time, then there's something wrong with this picture. If this is the case, then Sakura and I have never even met the real Izanami. If this is the case, your fiancée has been gone for longer than you think. If this is the case..._ who is with Sakura right now?"_

------------

------

---

Notes on terms:

_Tsuchikage: _(Earth Shadow) Head of the Hidden Village of the Earth Country, just as the Hokage is the leader of the Fire Country  
_tatami: _traditional straw mats that are laid down to cover the floor  
_fusuma:_ rice paper sliding doors  
_futon_: traditional bedding

Heh. Slightly different cliffhanger from last chapter...so...yes. Anyway, I posted this one earlier because of all the stuffups last chapter, and I'm crossing my fingers that this one works okay. Thanks, everyone! (you know who you are)


	11. Breaking

NOTE: This chapter is long. LONG. It is twice as long as previous chapters. I couldn't split it without ruining the flow, so just a heads up, especially in light of a recent anonymous reviewer who found the fic "boring". If you've found earlier installments boring, this will be just the same. So do yourself a favour, and quit reading right about _now_.

----

Chapter eleven  
Breaking

----

Sakura slept on it and awoke refreshed, ready to put her theory to the test. She had worked late into the night drawing diagrams and making notes until she was completely satisfied with her as yet unproven theory. It was the first entirely restful night she'd had since they'd come to stay, and she was grateful - if a little embarrassed - to wake up and realise she'd slept until nearly noon. Kakashi had gone, of course, off to do whatever it was that he did while she worked on Izanami.

He hadn't said anything, but she could tell his patience was wearing thin. Every evening when they both returned to the room, he'd give her an expectant look, waiting for her to tell him she'd managed to crack the case. Every evening she had to look away, unable to meet the query on his face.

She glanced down at the paper held tightly in her hand. Today...maybe today was the day. No, not maybe. Today she'd _definitely_ succeed. If there was one thing Haruno Sakura excelled at, it was book smarts. She may not be up there with the best in the practical arena, but it when it came to theory, she really knew her stuff. She trusted in her logic and now all that was left was to apply it to the situation.

She reached her destination and knocked on the door. "Izanami-san?" she called. No answer. She tried again. "Izanami-san?" Still no response. Slightly worried, she pushed aside the fusuma and stuck her head inside. The room was empty.

Scanning the space, she double-checked, eyes travelling over the unlit brazier and dismantled kotatsu. _Nope. She's definitely not here._

Where would she have gone? She knew Sakura was coming over this morning; it was their routine, after all. But - _oh._ Sakura bit her lip in consternation. Dammit, she'd slept in. She was hours late for their usual meeting time. Possibly Izanami had tired of waiting and gone to check the room and they'd managed to miss each other in the massive, labyrinthine homestead. She tucked the paper into her pocket and set off, jogging back to her room.

"Izanami-san?" Again, nothing. She checked inside but it was exactly as she'd left it, tidy and unoccupied. She had no idea where their hostess had gotten to, but it really was unlucky timing, now that she finally had a theory to go on. Her pleasure at having slept in was evaporating quickly, and disappeared altogether after combing the house to no avail. She was about to give up when it occurred to her that Izanami had mentioned in passing how nice the view from the back verandah was. It took her some time to map her way there, and she was considering just going out a side door and walking around the outside of the homestead when she felt a rush of fresh air and found herself at the rear of the house.

Izanami was right - the view was nice. In fact, it was more than nice - it was glorious. Kakashi had said the gardens were extensive and beautiful, and she could really see that, given the opportunity. If she lived in such lush surrounds, Sakura told herself, she'd never go inside.

"Sakura?" She turned and spotted Izanami kneeling to her left, a blanket protecting her legs from the hard wooden porch slats. "What are you doing out here?"

"I was looking for you," she replied, before rushing to apologise. "I'm sorry for not meeting you at the usual time, I slept in and -"

"Sakura." Izanami's voice was soft but her tone was resolute and Sakura tensed, fearing she knew what was about to come.

"Yes?" she answered weakly, hoping to not get put on the spot.

"You've been keeping your observations from me."

Sakura said nothing - it was the truth, after all.

"I want you to tell me honestly, sparing no thought for my feelings, exactly what is the problem."

She'd rather not. "I really think -"

"Please." Now her voice was pleading, and Sakura couldn't help but notice a sheen of tears over Izanami's eyes. "I want to know. I _need_ to know. Tell me what you see."

She'd never liked saying things that had the potential to offend other people. She had always thought one thing and said another, because it was easier to play nice and say what they wanted to hear rather than to take the chance and tell the truth. Fence sitting had always worked for Sakura in the past, but she knew it wasn't going to cut it this time. The circumstances were far too serious to consider hurt feelings or harsh honesty. This time someone's life was in the balance, and Sakura was going to have to come clean, whether she liked it or not.

For the record, it was definitely _not._

"It's hard to say," she hedged, and it was; she wasn't sure how to word something she didn't quite understand herself. "You said you've been ill for a number of years now."

Izanami nodded. "For some time. You've known this from the beginning, though."

_Well, yes, but... _"And have you ever had periods you can't remember immediately afterwards, or the next day? Blackouts, so to speak?" Akio had said she didn't know about the fits, so it wouldn't be much help asking her about them.

Now she looked agitated. "I - I have. They occur infrequently and I am always fine the following day, so I have not given them much thought." She paused and something seemed to occur to her. "But how did you know about them? Did Yasuo-kun tell you?"

_Tact, Sakura!_ "Er, well. It just seemed to explain a lot about the state of your body. Your cells, tissue, muscles - they all have a strange feel to them. I wasn't sure what it meant so I did some working out and this is what I got."

She pulled the crumpled sheet from her pocket and passed it to the other girl, walking over to the railing and resting her elbows on the edge. She continued as she gazed out over the gardens, having committed the contents of the paper to memory by now. "As you can see that's a rough diagram of the human body." She hadn't bothered filling in chakra lines and the inner coil system - for a non-shinobi, they didn't come into play. "I've noted the major organs and their key functions and labelled any basic processes that pertain to your condition."

Behind her she could hear the paper crackle and move as Izanami flattened it on her knees to get a better look.

"Your symptoms as you described to me are many and varied. You get lightheaded; have migraines; catch colds and common illnesses easily; are much weakened; can't eat great quantities; sleep only rarely and even then in fits and bursts...the list continues and can be attributed to any number of things. You could have anything, from anemia to leukemia, but if you did, I would know. I would have been able to divine an existing sickness and could have worked against it from there. For some reason, though, I couldn't, and it's been eating me up inside."

Again she heard the paper shifting but she didn't turn around. She was finally explaining her theory and she needed to expel it in one big whoosh, to get it out into the open where it could be judged as worthy and workable, possible and true.

"Every time I looked inside you I wasn't quite sure that what I was seeing or feeling was real. I could see on the outside you were moving and talking, breathing and living. I mean, of _course_ you were - are - living." She laughed weakly, hoping she didn't sound too stupid. "But for some reason whenever I descended into you, all I could see was death."

She waited for a sniff, a gasp, some exclamation or protest. There was nothing, so she continued, still unwilling to turn around.

"It didn't make sense. I could understand if there were parts of darkness, if pieces and components had seized up and stopped working over time. But it was nothing like that at all. Instead of one cog rusting over and ceasing to function the whole machine had shut down instead. For some reason your body had convinced itself it didn't work any more; for some reason, it thought it was dead."

Her mouth was dry and cottony from talking too much and too fast. Without a response from Izanami she was still obligated to go on, words tumbling from her lips with no thought or direction as she kept her train of thought going.

"Then I remembered something Akio-san said, that you have periods of ma-- of blackouts, things you couldn't recall, and I wondered if your body had become confused when faced with these. I guess I mean your mind here, not your body...no, your body and mind combined. It's a stretch but there's a theory that within a body many minds or personalities can co-exist. Usually one mind is in control and these other personalities are repressed and hidden, sometimes never gaining the upper hand."

Inner Sakura nodded despondently but she ignored the distraction, pressing on.

"And then sometimes this other, latent personality comes to the fore, drowning out the regular mind and gaining control for a while." Finally the crux of her argument approached. She could feel it, almost taste it, and it was good to be this close.

"So I believe that within you exists a duality, Izanami-san. I think that you, like many others, possess this second personality, and while it remains for the most part passive, occasionally it surfaces, inducing these blackouts from which you suffer. And I have hopes that your dead-seeming tissue and parts are caused by this other personality convincing your body that it is the _true _you, and has taken all your life force to fuel it, instead. Your body has been fooled, completely and utterly, and to combat this all I need to do is enter this regressive personality and order your proper body functions to return."

_There._ She was done. It had taken her hours to sort out and piece this theory together, but felt good and right and she was nearly one hundred percent sure it was entirely correct. There was nothing she could think of more plausible than this and she hoped Izanami had understood and thought the same.

She was contemplating finally turning and facing her patient when she heard the paper rustle again and this time, fall to the ground. The blanket snagged on the wood as Izanami got to her feet and came up behind her, stopping so close Sakura could feel the chill of her body through their layers of clothing. Her skin prickled. Izanami was freezing! She was about to admonish her for not looking after herself properly when thin arms snaked around her and Sakura was pressed into a hug.

She stiffened. This was...strange. She'd never considered Izanami to be a physically affectionate person, and Sakura had never been one either. In fact, the only girl who'd ever hugged her like this was Ino, and that had felt a lot different.

"Congratulations," Izanami whispered, her breath tickling her ear. The other girl was half a head taller than Sakura, making her mouth close to her chin, and she felt a sudden uneasiness without quite knowing why.

"Oh, er...I don't know if I'm correct or not," Sakura said, a false note of cheeriness disguising her discomfort. "We'll have to wait and find out."

"He was right, I see." Sakura shifted slightly, wanting to move but not knowing if that would be perceived as rude. And who was right? Akio? "He said that you were the smartest, smarter even than the Uchiha. I didn't believe him at first, but your theory was certainly well-informed."

She froze. "What did you say?" Her breath was coming in shallow pants now but she was surprised she was managing to breathe at all. Izanami had just said...well, she wasn't sure what she'd said.

A laugh, close to her ear. Hair brushed her face. She was suddenly more frightened of Izanami than she'd been of anyone in a very long time.

"Very imaginative," the other girl continued, amusement plain in her voice. "I expected you'd take much longer to sort something out and so I'm still rather ill prepared. My reinforcements aren't due until the week after next, so I'll have to take care of you myself."

Sakura choked. _Ill prepared...reinforcements...and Izanami was going to _take care _of her? _None of this was making any sense, but one thing was for sure - she needed distance, and now.

She tried to withdraw from the embrace but other woman's arms held firm, trapping her within. She pushed again, harder, but still couldn't get loose. For a sick and weakened woman Izanami felt almost stronger than herself.

"Oh, Sakura," she said, and the amusement was still there. Her voice sounded different, though, strong and harsh. Still unsettled, Sakura struggled further, but Izanami's hands were like a vice and she just couldn't get free. "How simple it is to subdue you Leaf shinobi," she continued, and Sakura stopped fighting, shocked, because the jig was up, so to speak. "I should have told Orochimaru-sama that Konoha could have easily been his, and all for the price of a hug."

----

"_...then who is with Sakura right now?"_

Kakashi stared down at Akio, his words hanging in the air. He felt like all of the blood had rushed from his face and gone straight to his heart, which in turn pumped frantically, making his breathing shallow and fast. Something was about to happen - had already happened - and if they didn't start moving now it was going to be too late.

"Get up," he ordered the policeman, who was still hunched over on the ground. Akio had turned away and was gazing down at Izanami's barely recognisable form, sobs once again racking his frame.

They didn't have time for this. "Get up!" he commanded, voice loud in the quiet wood. Akio didn't move. Kakashi understood the other man's grief but there was a time and place for everything, and this situation afforded them neither. He had no room for pleasantries and it looked like he was about to come across as the bad guy again.

He took a deep breath and reached down, grabbing Akio by his starched collar and pulling him up off the ground. Akio's hands came up and slapped uselessly at Kakashi's own, while his legs flailed helplessly half a metre above the grass.

"I'm going to give you an explanation because you don't deserve to be treated like this, but be aware I am wasting valuable seconds by telling you this before we move." Kakashi's voice was low and urgent and he felt the policeman calm somewhat as he continued to speak. "We've just found the body of your fiancée lying out here in the garden, and as we're both men who've seen death we know she's been out here for some time - more than a week, at the very least. Sakura and I have been staying here in the same house as that woman and I swear to you I saw her and spoke with her last night. Something here does not make sense, but one thing is clear - if this is the real Hirogari Izanami, then the one back at the homestead, the one Sakura is trying desperately to heal, is not your fiancée at all but is an imposter, a fake so powerful they have fooled my ninja senses." _And not for the first time._

He couldn't believe it. After the ambush he had sworn never to be tricked again, and he'd walked out of one situation only to be hoodwinked into another. This was his punishment for not taking the original fight seriously enough, for not thinking further on the how's and the why's. But there had been no sign, dammit, no indication that Izanami was anything other than what she had appeared to be. How had she managed to deceive him again?

And why was he thinking about it now, of all times? They needed to get a move on; they couldn't keep standing around all day.

"Do you understand?" he asked Akio. He just didn't have the time or inclination to tell him that again.

Akio was silent for a moment, his limbs slack, and Kakashi wondered if the shock had been too much for him, sending him over the edge. But then he moved slightly as if waking, and bowed his head. "I understand," he said dully. Kakashi nodded. It would have to do.

"Hold on, then," he said, and they disappeared, the puff of smoke they left behind drifting in the sudden wind.

----

They burst in through the foyer and raced down to Izanami's room. It was empty and looked like it had been so for the entire day, at least. He spun on his heel without a word and navigated back to his room, thrusting the fusuma aside with such force the wood cracked and splintered, the door wrenching from its channel and flying off down the hall.

This one, too - unoccupied, but it couldn't have been for long. He could almost taste that Sakura had been here recently, half an hour ago at most.

"Right," he said under his breath, and had tensed to shift and leave when their travelling packs caught his eye. He wondered if they'd brought anything that would be of any use. Nothing came immediately to mind but far better to more prepared than less, so he grabbed them as he turned to exit, looping them over his shoulder without another thought.

Still in the ruined doorway, Akio was shaking. "Where are they?" he asked, his voice painfully hoarse. Kakashi spared him a glance.

"Let me check."

He sped up the usual descent into his core, snapping from alert to inwardly focussed in the blink of an eye. A shock akin to whiplash stung his body and he knew he'd be feeling this later, but there was no time for protocol and from here on in he'd have to wing it.

_Expand_, he told his chakra curtly. Lines stretched out from the sphere within, breaking through the walls of flesh and then wood, and speeding off into the far reaches of the house. No need to stuff around with searching manually, when he could pinpoint their exact location like this.

He inhaled and the lines retracted, slipping back inside of him in the space of that single breath. He turned to Akio, who was clammy and white. "They're out the back," Kakashi told him quickly, before scanning the room and considering their options. They _could_ go the long way...but it would be much easier to just...not. He took a deep breath and pressed back on his heel before springing forward and throwing himself out the window, landing in a crouch outside. Glass tinkled around him, dusting his shirt and hair. He reached up and slipped the eye patch off from around his head - no point in wearing it now, after all - and turned back to Akio, pinning the suddenly dumbstruck man with his black and scarlet gaze.

"Come," he said, and the policeman hurried to comply, clambering awkwardly through the window frame and joining him outside. "Hold on," Kakashi instructed and when he felt Akio's trembling fingers grip tight around his bicep he pushed off, boosting his jump with chakra so as to land lightly on the roof.

The house was big and the roof was vast, a sea of corrugated iron that stretched out in all directions. The sense of Sakura's location was still strong in his mind and he followed his instinct to the area his chakra had projected, coming to a stop at the very back of the house. The roof felt thinner here with no extra ceiling to hold it up and he could tell they were over a verandah that faced a garden he'd seen from a distance before.

She was here; he could feel her, nearly right below where he and Akio stood now. He honed a thread of chakra and sunk it down through the metal, pushing and feeding it through until it emerged on the other side, allowing him to see.

Sakura was there, pressed between the railing and - he stiffened - Izanami. This version was living, of course, but a vision of the real one flashed across his eyes before he could avoid it. There was no doubt about it. They looked to be one and the same. This woman had pretended to be their hostess, had kept the act up for a week and more and he was _still_ unable to tell that she was a fake. He kneaded the skin under his left eye, then closed his right, looking down through the chakra thread with the Sharingan alone.

He took another skein of chakra and fed the Kekkai Genkai, changing how he viewed the image by bending it to his will. He waited as colour bled from his vision; greens, browns and purples leeching from his surrounds until everything was etched in black, white and grey.

_Now, show me,_ he told it, concentrating on the two girls. Blue returned, a blaze of aquamarine crystallising into existence and forming an aura around Sakura's form. It hardened and coalesced, darkening to a rich azure before settling into a midnight blue, a shadow of sapphire that seemed to shine from her skin. She was unhurt, then, and healthy - her chakra hummed with life.

He transferred his attention to "Izanami" and waited for the same to happen to her. At first there was nothing, then a gradual onset of colour appeared, the bluish green of an old bruise shading her body in patches. To his heightened vision it looked like she'd been sewn together, crudely moulded with the chakra of at least two other ninja, while within her also burned the last of the life force of what had to have been a human sacrifice.

He swallowed, with difficulty. It was just as he'd feared. Whoever the person down there with Sakura turned out to be, it certainly was not the Izanami that Akio had been engaged to. This was a forbidden jutsu at work, and damned if he knew what to do about it. In fact, the only thing he really could do was --

"Hatake Kakashi." Izanami's voice carried up to him as the vision faded and he found himself staring at the roof once more. "I know you're up there. Why don't you come down and join us, so we can reminisce about old times?"

Akio twitched beside him, clutching at his arm with white-knuckled fear. "T-That isn't Izanami! Her voice doesn't sound like that!"

"I know," Kakashi said, extricating himself from the policeman's hold. "Stay here and don't move." He slipped the pack straps from his shoulder and handed them across; Akio accepted them, fingers curling around the fabric as if needing to cling to something, anything.

Kakashi stood up and jumped down, landing softly on the grass where the verandah opened out.

"Kakashi," Sakura breathed, her face frightened and pale. He looked past her to where the imposter smirked, face half hidden behind Sakura's head.

"Let her go," he suggested reasonably enough, the fingers of his left hand twitching slightly.

The fake smiled, stepping to the side a bit, her mouth stretching wide. "Or you'll what?"

His hand twitched again; he fisted it, and then pressed it flat against his thigh. "Or I'll be forced to take drastic measures."

Arms wrapped tighter around Sakura, who continued to stare at him - past him - in shock. "Like what?" the woman queried, almost teasingly, as if all of this was a game.

It wasn't. Not to him. Not to Akio and definitely not to Sakura, who looked as if she was frozen in fear, unable to move.

"Like this," he said, as light spun and crackled into existence, forming a sparking ball in his palm as the sound of a thousand birds filled the air.

----

Sakura fought against the panic rising in her chest. She didn't know what was happening to her, why she felt so weak, but the rush of relief that she'd experienced when Izanami said Kakashi's name both comforted and shamed her. She was glad he was here, secure in the knowledge that his presence would make things right again, but she was embarrassed, humiliated that a chuunin such as herself required saving from _any _situation.

She tried to move again and found she still couldn't. This was ridiculous, she knew the names of every single piece of muscle, every bone, cartilage, synapse and nerve end and yet she couldn't get her damn body to get itself away.

She felt like she was paralysed, or watching the scene from beyond her flesh. She felt distanced yet weak. Technically she knew she was a strong kunoichi, and of course she'd been taught by none other than Tsunade of the Legendary Sannin, after all. For some reason, though, she was unable to use that knowledge, that belief in her own power. She simply couldn't move; she was frozen where she stood and as the sparks flew and gathered around Kakashi's hand she wondered if she'd ever be able to do anything at all.

There'd been a dream like this once, hadn't there? No, that didn't seem right, surely Kakashi had never invaded her dreams. She usually slept without dreaming or forgot them upon waking, but what was this intangible feeling of something just out of reach?

Izanami jerked her roughly to the side and her body followed unwillingly, still trapped effectively by the other woman's strength. There was no time for dwelling on memories and dreams. The now, this reality, was far more dangerous than they could ever be.

"Sakura." He didn't raise his voice but she could hear him perfectly all the same, the low intonation carrying easily across the space between them. The Chidori chirped and whistled in his palm but he ignored it, looking at her questioningly, worry evident in both eyes.

She stared back at him, fixing on his now familiar face like a lifeline in the fear. Why couldn't she do anything? Why was she still so weak?

_Can you move?_ he seemed to be asking, and while she wanted so much to say yes, she could, and then punch Izanami into next week; all she could do was hold his gaze and shake her head. He nodded as if expecting it and her heart sunk at his foresight, his perception of her inadequacy, her inability to be of use. She was facing Kakashi but suddenly in her mind's eye all she could see was his back as he and her two teammates moved ever forward, while she stayed behind.

"Close your eyes," he instructed and she was almost tempted to rebel but then remembered he was her sensei and was therefore nearly always right. She closed her eyes as he started running and the Chidori grew louder, air snapping in protest as the chakra ball sliced through it. He was almost here now, close enough to reach out and touch and why was that familiar and birds can be awfully loud --

And then came a light so bright it blazed across her vision even with her eyelids closed. Flesh hissed and burned beside her; a choking gurgle came close to her ear. The sound and light both fizzled out as the jutsu faded from Kakashi's hand. Liquid warmth - blood, perhaps - soaked into her shoulder while a dead weight slumped over on top of her even as the grip slackened around her arms and waist. But she still couldn't move and stood there trembling, her eyes still clamped shut against it all.

"You can open them now." Kakashi's voice came again, breath once more tickling her ear. She shivered for a different reason and tentatively followed his instruction, blinking back into daylight and a chest that was really very close. She stared at his adam's apple, needing desperately to focus on something and that may as well be it.

He was reaching behind her and she wasn't sure why but then the slack grip around her loosened entirely and he stepped back, having freed her from Izanami's disturbing hold. A thump came from behind her but she ignored it, unable to concentrate on more than two things at once.

"You choked up," he said matter-of-factly. There was no judgment in his tone but she almost wished there was because she'd messed up and he'd been forced to come and save her again.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, unable to meet his gaze. Even now it was all she could do to look away. Moving her body seemed entirely out of the question.

"Don't worry, it happens to everyone at some point."

A faint hint of something took offence at the words, even though he didn't say them in a patronising way. She hoped it was anger because that had always given her strength in the past. "I bet it never happened to you." She still wasn't looking at him but she felt his head turn and knew he was giving her a considering look. Damn their proximity, she could gauge his reactions now.

"It has," he replied evenly, but there was a raw quality to his voice that sounded a bit like...pain? She glanced up unthinkingly but he was looking past her and she took a deep and steadying breath before turning to follow his gaze.

She gasped. Once Sakura had been plucked from her grasp there had been nothing holding Izanami upright, and her inert form now lay crumpled on the floor. The Chidori had made impact just below her left collarbone and bruised flesh spiralled out from a centre point, marring her chest and arms. Sakura didn't know if the girl had deserved the attack but found she didn't care, staring down at the sprawled body with a kind of chilling numbness. Why had she done that? Why had she said something about Orochimaru? And why was her face _changing_ like that?

Even as she watched, the skin on Izanami's face bubbled and distorted, rippling like a still pond that had just had a stone thrown in. The flesh stretched then crumpled, as the skin changed colour and features sharpened, wrinkles appearing gradually upon the once-young face. Soft arms hardened into thin and sinewy ones; the curve of her breasts receded and became a hollowed out chest. The pale legs beneath her kimono shortened and shrunk and the dark fall of her hair decreased to a few graying wisps on the top of a bald head. The only thing that remained constant was the burnt epicentre of the Chidori wound, and when everything had finished changing, Sakura found herself staring down at the withered corpse of a very old man.

----

At the last second before impact Kakashi held back a bit, so the wound would be a surface one as opposed to anything too severe. There was no doubt in his mind that this was an imposter, that the dead Izanami they'd discovered under the trees was anything but the real thing. And yet he'd felt a moment of remorse, a second of pity for poor Akio, who was about to have his fiancée ripped from him for the second time in one day. Life wasn't fair, but he'd known that, of course. Just sometimes events played out to remind him of the fact.

To his eyes, Sakura seemed okay, but he knew she'd be beating herself up inside. She'd choked - they all did at some point. He told her that, however she remained unconvinced, and he probably would have reiterated it but then the jutsu started unravelling and all he could do was watch.

When the process was over he was surprised to find a familiar face - it was the old man from the inn, the one from the first occupied room. His thoughts flashed back to that chance encounter with Taro and how the innkeeper had mentioned the drunkard had gone missing. _Another piece of the puzzle_, he thought, hoping death had come swiftly to the old man. What a waste to have been spared the fire only to walk straight into the waiting arms of their unknown enemy.

Sakura shifted and looked up at him, some of the glazed shock fading from her eyes. Their situation looked to have hit home and she was slowly processing things, returning to the strong, capable Sakura he knew had been in there all along. He didn't know exactly what had caused her temporary freeze but she was going to be fine if they stayed out of trouble.

"She said," she began, then paused to clear her throat. "She said she communicated with...Orochimaru."

Kakashi blinked. Another puzzle piece snapped into place. He opened his mouth to reply but then he felt a ripping, tearing at his shoulder and had to grit his teeth against the sudden onset of pain. Shit, he'd almost forgotten about the curse seal. It had stopped hurting a few days after the ambush and he'd convinced both himself and Sakura he had managed to subdue it entirely.

Apparently, he had not.

Breath hissed between his teeth as he stumbled backwards, away from Sakura and down the low steps. He fumbled behind him, slapping a hand at the approximate location, prepared to try and contain it again. A new burst of pain radiated from the mark and he barely registered the whistle in the wind that signified a set of approaching shuriken. He managed to avoid their unexpected appearance and spun in the direction they'd come from, slitted eyes marking the approach of another oddly familiar man.

He remembered the first time they'd met Izanami back in Akio's office and when she'd fainted, a man - Hoshi? - had come to take her away. Now, like everything recently, events had come full circle and a chance encounter had turned out to mean more than it seemed. They hadn't seen him again but the meeting had been so brief Kakashi had never noticed his absence. It didn't matter this time, really, since it wasn't that man anyway. This time, if he wasn't mistaken, the other man's features shone to his Sharingan with the telltale glow of a transformation jutsu.

"Your _Henge_ doesn't work on me," he called out before the man reached him. "You might as well dismiss it and save your chakra for later."

"Hoshi" chuckled. "Very well, if you insist." He brought his hands up and made the seal; with an audible poof the jutsu was discarded and when the smoke cleared they were afforded their first real view of the enemy.

He'd been right back then, at least partly. The ninja was a woman. She looked older than Sakura but younger than himself, of average height, with average features. Dark eyes returned his gaze coolly as an indolent hand reached up to tuck a few errant strands of pale hair back under her hitai-ate, the metal plate stamped with the symbol of the Sound. "We meet again, Hatake Kakashi," she said, tilting her head and giving him an appraising look. "And I just wanted to say I love what you've done with your hair."

"We meet at last," he corrected her, ignoring her other remark. "And _I _just wanted to say it's impolite to keep calling me by my name when you haven't even offered me yours."

"Nonsense!" she returned, pulling a kunai from her hip pack and twirling it casually around one finger. "I'm insulted you've forgotten our last rendezvous, especially since I gave you such a wonderful present." Her eyes glittered as the pain in his shoulder returned and intensified. He tried to ignore it and concentrated instead on the external threat that was the woman before him.

"And your name?" he queried again, in an effort to block out the pain.

"Call me Yumi," she suggested, before glancing back, behind where he stood. "Although I'm more than willing to put on Sakura's face whenever you want."

----

Any lingering trace of physical apathy vanished from Sakura's system at the woman's strange, confusing words. "Why would you want to put on my face?" she wondered aloud, noting Kakashi's set shoulders and a seeming reluctance on his part to turn and meet her eye. "Kakashi?" He tilted his head in acknowledgement of her question but didn't look away from the enemy-nin, even as Sakura descended the steps and crossed the grass to where he stood.

On the other side of the garden, the woman was watching their exchange with apparent interest. "You haven't told her, Kakashi-_sensei_?" she asked, mock scolding in her tone. "Now that's just rude. Especially when she was _so_ important in your eventual defeat."

Okay, now she was _really _confused. How could she have contributed to Kakashi's defeat when she'd been off trouncing those other nins, albeit accidentally? By the time she'd gotten back to the clearing he'd already suffered through an attack and had been on the edges of consciousness. She'd rushed forwards, catching him before he collapsed entirely. And then, he'd said something, hadn't he? What had it been?

That's right. _"Is that you?"_ he'd asked and she'd paid it no mind, too frightened for his safety to worry about any strange things coming from his mouth. However, even remembering it didn't help at all since she couldn't see what the other woman was getting at. She did understand somewhat that this kunoichi had been the cause of Izanami's death and she rounded on her furiously, anger kindling and strength returning as she felt the other woman's amused gaze.

"Yumi, was it?" She didn't wait for an answer; she'd heard her the first time. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but too often things were put off until later and then an opportunity never came for them to be addressed again. She settled for the current and most obvious one, something she wanted to know right now. "What did you mean by _put on my face_?"

The nin considered. "I don't know if I should be the one to tell you, Sakura-chan. If dear Kakashi-sensei here hasn't seen fit to share it with you, maybe you're just not old enough to be told." The words were cruel and she felt insulted; how _dare_ this woman tell her something she'd been trying to ignore herself.

"I'm not a child," Sakura replied frostily. "I only asked for elaboration on a comment you made. If anyone is being immature here, it's you for failing to answer me."

Dark eyes slid from Sakura to Kakashi and the woman quirked an eyebrow at him. "I'm sure she'd prefer it coming from you, Hatake, but I'm more than happy to tell her myself."

"Don't bother," he said, fingers flexing again. "It's not important."

"I beg to differ," she returned condescendingly. "How can Sakura concentrate with unanswered questions between us? And I'm certain you're curious as to how exactly I pulled the wool over your -" she paused for greater effect," - eye."

Sakura resisted the urge to roll both of hers. Why did enemy-nin have to be so damned theatrical? It was like they weren't able to really get into a fight until they'd listed all their achievements and gone into just how they managed to triumph until now. She _was_ interested as to how this woman - Yumi - had fooled Kakashi and taken over Izanami's life, but it wasn't idle curiosity. In this case she needed to know so she could figure out how much suffering she'd be forcing upon this disgusting enemy-nin. To have killed at least one innocent - and it was more than likely more - as well as putting a man as nice, if somewhat boring, as Akio through all this was unforgivable, and she was going to pay.

Guilt stung at her, and a little voice told her it was partially her fault for wanting to stay, for _demanding_ to stay, but she quashed it for the time being. Regrets came after a battle, not during. They would have to be patient and wait their turn.

"So get on with it," Sakura said, her voice bored. "I'm sure we're going to have to sit through a monologue vaunting your skills anyway, you might as well make a start now."

To her surprise, Yumi laughed. "Oh, aren't you precious!" She turned to Kakashi. "I can see why you keep her around."

Sakura gnashed her teeth. If she hadn't already hated the woman, she would have started to right about now. Sadly she didn't have time to dwell on her dislike - she'd rather know the how's and why's, or failing that, wanted to fight. Fury, slow and roiling, grew in the pit of her stomach and snaked through her muscles, priming her to fight. She hadn't felt this pumped about hurting someone since her last spar with Naruto. And she still needed to work off the irritation left behind at her weakness from before.

"Will you be explaining yourself any time soon?" Kakashi asked, with a hint of asperity. His hand clenched and she heard his knuckles crack. _Good. _He was as angry as she was.

"I had no idea how eager the two of you were to fight, but I suppose I can tell you a few things." Yumi inspected her fingernails, almost thoughtful. "The hardest part is where to begin...I guess I'll let you in on the fact we knew your moving position for a week before we attacked."

Sakura tried to hide how she blanched at the words but sharp eyes picked up on it, moving to pin her with their amused gaze. "There's a reason you're still a chuunin, precious. I'm sure your sensei knew we were there, but our intentions would not have been obvious until that last night."

Kakashi made no reaction, so the woman continued.

"We weren't sure how to attack, so I hung back to formulate a plan. I watched as my subordinates were easily overpowered, and though I knew how much chakra I'd lose, I decided to use the technique developed and passed down through my family - the _Shoten no Jutsu._"

Blinking, Sakura tried to process. _Shoten no Jutsu?_ A technique of sacrifice...of death?

"You killed one of them," she breathed, the cogs turning. "You killed one of your own comrades in order to get the power to trick Kakashi."

The woman shrugged. "You'd wounded him anyway. There was no point in him just sitting there, bleeding. He gave his life for a good purpose in the service of Orochimaru, our leader." Her lips bared in a feral smile. "And what a _handsome_ leader he's come to be."

Sakura stiffened and would have rushed at her had Kakashi not put a restraining hand on her arm. He shook his head slightly, features expressionless. _It's what she wants,_ his face told her, and dammit, she knew that, but it didn't make bearing it hurt any less.

"Don't make your weaknesses so obvious, precious," Yumi taunted. "And that goes for the both of you."

_Huh?_

"How do you think I got close enough to stab the great Copy-nin, Sakura-chan? I'm not so confident as to believe I'm on equal footing as him. My brother has beaten me every single time we've sparred, and I would say he has comparative skills to Hatake here."

Sakura's mind whirled. There was a brother now? He was as powerful as Kakashi? It was too much, too fast. This was getting out of hand. "I don't know how you got close enough," she replied evenly, trying to keep focus on one thing at a time.

Yumi laughed, delightedly. "Oh, this is fabulous! I can't believe you didn't tell her." Again, Kakashi said nothing, and Sakura wondered how bad it could be. Why had he kept it from her and why was he still so reluctant for her to know?

"You see, Sakura-chan," the nin said, tilting her head. "I got close enough to injure Kakashi by giving him a hug."

A hug. _A hug._ She'd never really hugged him and yet this enemy claimed to have done so. Some emotion reared within her but she ignored it, staring at the nin.

She was still watching, gauging Sakura's reaction.

"And he let me do that, precious, because when my arms went around him and I pressed against his chest, he thought that it was _you._"

----

Kakashi flinched. _Damn._ The main reason he hadn't wanted to tell Sakura how he'd been disarmed was because he knew she'd feel guilty by association, despite none of it being her fault. The other reason was one he hadn't let himself dwell on, and was that he was afraid he'd sound somewhat perverted, lowering his guards by getting up close and personal with his student. The way Yumi had described it, by way of omission, was everything he hadn't wanted it to be.

Sakura was still standing slightly behind and to the left of him. He looked over at her from the corner of his eye and the Sharingan whirred and focussed in, counting the number of strands of her hair and noting a loose thread on the bottom of her shirt. It took her heart rate and observed the increased speed of blood running through her veins. She took a shocked breath and his eye saw too clearly the surprise on her face; she thought to look at him and he glanced away before she could, unwilling to meet her gaze.

"Thought it was...me?" she echoed, unbelievingly.

And then, it sunk in. Her head snapped up, eyes blazing. Fury made her body tremble, her hands fisted at her sides. "You...you managed to look like I do, put on my face, came up and hugged Kakashi, tore down his defences and then fucking _stabbed_ him while he thought you were me!" She sounded beyond outrage. It looked like Sakura had seen red.

Across from them, Yumi blinked at the force of her anger. "Well...yes..." she said slowly, as if speaking to a dull-witted child. "It was all I could think of."

"You should have thought harder!" Sakura roared, pushing off. He watched with some surprise as she activated the _Kumokasumi Senko no Jutsu_, shifting from one spot to another in a brown edged blur. Their enemy started and looked around for the girl, who reappeared beneath her, crouched on the ground, one leg scissored upwards in a familiar lion kick. The very edge of Sakura's sandal caught on Yumi's chin, and had the woman not already been leaning backwards to avoid the contact, the force behind the attack would have surely crushed her jaw. As it was, it flung her across the yard, arching her upwards before she angled down towards the grass. She somersaulted weakly before impact and landed awkwardly on one foot, lurching sideways before settling into a more stable crouch. She touched her jaw and regarded Sakura with something akin to respect.

"Well," she said. "I may have underestimated you, precious. You've managed to interrupt the flow of my story, though, so I can't remember what I was up to."

"Like I care," Sakura spat. "I lost interest when you stabbed Kakashi while he thought you were me." She rubbed violently at her eyes. "I'm sorry, Kakashi."

He looked at her, surprised. "There's nothing to apologise for, Sakura."

"No, there is!" She turned back to him imploringly, and he was shocked to see tears threatening at the edges of her eyes. "I'm sorry you had to think, even for a moment, that I had betrayed you like that."

Something hot had lodged in his throat and he swallowed, trying to move it. It stuck firm and he coughed a bit, but still it stayed in place. "I -" he started, before being interrupted by Yumi.

"He didn't doubt you," she said, and her tone was strange, as if he had disappointed her. "As soon as I attacked him, he knew it wasn't you."

Some of the tension drained from Sakura's face and relief took its place. "Really?" she breathed and he didn't know how to respond, so he looked at Yumi instead. Her interest appeared caught by something behind him, but he was unwilling to turn around lest it be another trick. Then he heard a scrabble of limbs and a scraping along metal and it dimly registered there'd been someone else just as Akio slid completely off the roof.

_Shit._ He'd completely forgotten about the policeman, and he couldn't have returned at a more inconvenient time. Kakashi debated whether or not to turn and see how much Akio had injured himself from the fall when the man pushed past him, running towards the enemy-nin.

She watched him approach with barely concealed amusement. "What do you hope to achieve?" she asked curiously as he crossed the distance between them. "I am a kunoichi and you are just a man. That is a world of difference; there is nothing you can do."

Akio faltered and stumbled, tripping onto the grass and lying there panting, one of their packs still looped incongruously over his shoulder. He slapped the ground bitterly in a gesture of frustration and Kakashi couldn't help but notice the man had injured himself and was bleeding from a long yet shallow cut along his palm.

"Did you kill her?" Akio cried, pushing himself to his knees. "Did you kill Izanami?"

She regarded him pityingly. "Yes," she said simply, and he froze in horror. Sakura gasped and even Kakashi could sense Akio was about to break.

"That's enough," he found himself saying sharply.

Yumi looked at him, the amusement back on her face. "He asked a question, Kakashi-_sensei_. I was just answering him, like your student wanted me to do before."

"Some questions don't need to be answered," he replied, and his tone was final. Without taking his eyes off her, he called out to Akio, "Are you all right?"

The policeman ignored him and clambered to his feet. "She killed her!" he shouted, no longer the neat and fastidious man they had come to know. Kakashi felt sorry for him, he truly did, as Akio was the real victim here, but there was nothing he could do about it.

"Yes, she's gone," he said, as gently as he could, still watching the enemy for signs of a forthcoming attack. He needed Akio out of the way before he could do something. There had already been too many civilian casualties.

Sakura moved back behind him and he almost started at her sudden reappearance. She'd remained silent throughout the exchange and it looked like something had been bothering her the whole time.

"So it was you as Izanami that day at the police station," she said, her posture stiff.

"Yes," Yumi replied. "I had already put things into motion at that point."

Sakura nodded, processing. "And what if I hadn't agreed to heal you? It all would have come to nothing, and Izanami still would have died."

"There was never any doubt. All you _good_ shinobi are so predictable in your compassion. If it was just Hatake on his own, I wouldn't have taken the gamble, but you, precious - I knew you'd be a soft one."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "I see. Thank you for clarifying that."

"My pleasure."

"But let me assure you," the girl continued, "I will not make this mistake again."

Yumi laughed. "But that's what makes it so fun! You _will_ make this mistake again, over and over no matter what the situation. Your hearts are all too kind for this world and that will always be your downfall. The only love a ninja is allowed to feel is the love for their village. You shinobi are always tripped up by the ties that bind and they will eventually lead to your death."

"Then at least I will die for what I believe in," Sakura retorted, apparently unimpressed. "And how can you talk about _this_ shinobi feeling, _that_ ninja way? You said before you were a kunoichi so why the sweeping generalisations of which you are no part?"

The other nin's mouth set into a tight line. "Right. Regardless, it seems I underestimated you. It is time for me to withdraw and regroup, because I for one want to live and see another day. Until next time, both of you."

She reached into her thigh holster and withdrew something, but he was so surprised at her sudden admission of weakness it wasn't until she'd thrown down the smoke pellets that he realised what they were. She disappeared as a black cloud filled the garden.

"Sakura, wait here," he said, tensing to jump. "I'll follow her."

"Wait!" came another voice, and he found he'd forgotten Akio again as the man dragged himself from the danger zone. He still had one of their packs - his, he could tell from the faint singeing on the bottom pocket - and it hung mournfully from his shoulder as he made his way towards them.

----

_She's getting away,_ Sakura thought angrily as she watched Akio hobble towards them. She inwardly cursed his dreadful timing. How long had it been now, twenty seconds, thirty? Who knew how far away Yumi was by now. Kakashi was the fastest ninja she knew, but it was becoming painfully apparent there were many ninja she _didn't_ know out there, with skills and abilities she couldn't hope to comprehend.

It was possibly too late already, and she saw her struggle reflected on Kakashi's face as he looked off in the direction the enemy-nin had gone.

"Don't go," Akio cried, reaching them at last. "Don't follow that woman, Kakashi-san."

Sakura was surprised at his sudden turnaround. He'd been so angry just before, it was a relief to see there was forgiveness in him as well. It made a person stronger, in the end.

"She's mine," he continued, fury setting his jaw. "I will make her pay for what she has put Izanami through."

_Then again, maybe not._

"But Sakura-sama, first you have to come with me."

She looked at him, confused. "What do you mean, Akio-san?"

His eyes glittered. "You need to come with me and see Izanami. She needs healing."

Her heart sunk. She glanced up at Kakashi, who turned regretfully from the direction Yumi had fled in, and sighed. "She doesn't need healing, Akio. She needs burying, and some prayers, if you'd like. She's gone. We've been through this."

The policeman's lower lip trembled. Sakura spoke carefully, not wanting him to break down again. "I'm gratified you have such faith in my abilities, Akio-san, but Kakashi is right. If Izanami is gone, there is nothing that can bring her back."

His shoulders sagged and the pack slipped off, the straps scraping down his arm before it thumped onto the ground. The top flap hadn't been fastened properly and a blue mission scroll fell out, rolling in a loop before coming to rest at his feet. They all looked at it for a moment, until Akio spoke.

"One of these should work - one of your scrolls can bring her back to me." His eyes were bright and his face was flushed, as if feverish.

"No," Kakashi said calmly. "Sakura told the truth before. Nothing can bring the dead back to life."

"You _lie!"_ Akio screamed. His voice cracked and Sakura realised this time he'd gone to far to listen to reason. Veins stood out on his temple and the cords on his neck were stretched tight with anger. He bent over and rummaged through the pack, Kakashi's belongings getting flung to either side. His fingers closed on something and he withdrew a small black scroll she'd never seen before.

Beside her, Kakashi stiffened. She didn't recognise the scroll but he appeared to know what it was, if his reaction was anything to go by.

"What is it?" she asked, indicating the scroll.

He seemed not to hear her, horror on his face. "Put that down, Akio."

He ignored Kakashi, bringing a hand around to undo the bindings. She registered dimly he'd cut his palm somewhere along the way as a weak trickle of blood slid down his palm and made an inexorable journey towards the parchment.

Kakashi blurred from her vision. She wondered if that was the fastest she'd ever seen him move but at the same time it seemed he shimmered in slow motion, afterimages of him racing to Akio burning the air as he passed through it. Her head felt huge and heavy, swivelling slowly and awkwardly to watch him go, her thoughts sluggish and lazy and not understanding why he was trying to get there so fast.

Akio pulled the scroll open. Kakashi reached where he stood. The drop of blood traversed the gap and splattered onto the parchment, echoing loudly in the suddenly quiet garden.

A second of silence.

And then noise returned and intensified, pressure appearing and multiplying in a fraction of an instant. Sakura clapped her hands to her ears as a sudden wind screamed into existence, ripping the grass from the ground and pelting her with dirt. She slitted her eyes against the onslaught and tried to see through the ripping wind, managing only to make out the largish blurs of Kakashi and Akio a few metres ahead. She stumbled forward, trying to reach them, but the pressure was intense and she could only inch over, a mammoth effort to lift each leg and press onward that way.

As she got closer she realised the scroll was the centre, the eye of this strange cyclone, that while she was being torn mercilessly by the cutting breeze the men seemed still and untouched. She squinted and it looked as if Kakashi had gotten to the scroll in time, his hand was splayed over Akio's and gripped onto the parchment as well.

_Just in time_, she thought as the gritty wind subsided. The air melted around her and sound faded once more. Kakashi looked up and they locked gazes, his eyes widening at her approach. She was close, so close now, but for some reason he was motioning for her to _get back, go away!_

She didn't understand. What could he mean, what was he saying? Fear etched his features and his eyes seemed so sad. His lips mouthed her name but it was still silent, so quiet and she didn't know why...

...and then they were torn from her vision in a blaze of green light. She blinked once, and then a second time, as water came from nowhere and filmed her eyes. It was hard to see through the strange wetness but even when blurred she could tell she was alone in the garden.

"Ka...Kakashi?" Her lips were cracked and her throat didn't want to work. She swallowed, and tried again. "Kakashi?"

Nothing. Nothing but silence. She stared unseeingly as the black scroll, the perpetrator, rolled down the slope of the grass and halted in front of her, its path cut off by Kakashi's abandoned pack. After a while - seconds? hours? - she reached out, picking it up with trembling hands. She forced her eyes down, afraid of what she'd find.

Like all scrolls, it had some kind of label on it, to avoid confusion. Some had only a pictogram while others had the name of the jutsu painted onto them. This one afforded her no illusions and she crumpled to the ground, flinging the scroll away as if it would undo the action and bring him back to her.

Painted boldly in small, neat kanji was a word that allowed her no compromise, and pained her, tore her, right down to the depths of her soul.

_Ka...mi...ka...ze._

Kakashi was dead.

**END OF PART ONE**

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Notes on terms:

_fusuma -_ rice paper sliding doors  
_kotatsu_ - a low table with a heating element in the middle

--runs away--

So, part one is over and done with, and hopefully everything's going to pick up in part two. A few questions have been answered and a few more have popped up, and I don't want to come across as (particularly) cruel, but I'll be taking a two week break from now. I need to sort out some story ideas and make sure everything links in, so unless my muses copulate wildly and provide me with a several chapters in the space of a few days, it will be pretty safe to assume it will be a fortnight between this update and the next.

Thanks for everyone's patience and support with this, especially (as always) Nushi, icarust and darkenedsakura, as well as theblackestfaery, whose drabble will come, once day. Until next chapter. :D


	12. Reaction I

This fic is now M-rated, for future violence and possible _other_ scenes. Better to be safe than sorry, with our good friend ffnet.

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Chapter twelve  
Reaction I

----

Sakura dreamed.

_Wind buffeted her. The clouds were tufts of cotton spread across a seascape sky. Blue and white surrounded her and she felt a sense of peace. She beat her wings once, twice, and then soared, coasting on the air, gliding through the sky. Nothing could touch her in this place, nothing could hurt here all the way up here. This was her escape. This was her sanity._

_But it wasn't her home. As much as she craved the rush of flying, as much as she wanted to escape whatever it was that waited for her on the ground, she knew she was dreaming. How could she not be? She wasn't free like a bird. She was land bound and weighted down with self-loathing and grief. It was a dream, but she wanted to cherish this feeling, the weightless wonder of freedom, because she knew upon waking it would once again be out of reach._

_She dipped and swooped, finding a current in the spiral of air and dropping down onto it, allowing the breeze to carry her where it wished. Wind ruffled her feathers and she would have smiled blissfully had her beak allowed it. Instead she settling on letting the breeze caress her softly, arching her neck as if into a lover's touch._

_The current changed course and she was surprised, but not alarmed. She continued to let it guide her as she had no specific direction in mind. The day was beautiful and she was determined to let this dream last as long as possible, because there was no way the waking world could be as perfect as this one._

_She was going lower now, descending through the sky slowly, but surely. Trees were coming to meet her, the leafy canopies almost close enough to scrape her belly. She spun sideways, barrelling to the left, and then tucking her wings close, she pointed down and dived._

_Branches reached out for her as she passed but she evaded their clutches. She was too fast, too small, too good for their snatching limbs. The ground was getting closer now, she could see grass between the leaves, sunlight dappling through in a flick-flick-flick as she rushed by. Nearly there, almost at the ground - and then she broke through, out of the forest._

_She was overlooking a garden, and while she retained her bird body, she wasn't flying any more. Now she seemed frozen in place in neither ground nor sky, suspended a few metres above a scene that unfolded before her._

_Fear filled her. She knew the people in the garden._

_It would be hard not to recognise Kakashi, even though the mini-cyclone still raged around him, hiding his features somewhat. He was so familiar to her she could pick him out anywhere. Now his lean frame was tense while one hand pressed down over Akio's on that hated, dreadful scroll. His face was obscured by his fall of dark hair and from her position she couldn't make out his expression, but she remembered it, regardless. The horror, the acceptance. He'd known what was going to occur even as it happened, turning, moving, her name on his lips._

_Akio was there too, of course, he and Kakashi both gripping the scroll. The wind was dying down and she knew what was coming next, the scene having repeated itself nonstop in her mind, over and over every minute since that day. It haunted her while she was awake and now it had invaded her dreams as well. Knowing this, she wanted to look away to spare herself the agony, but she was locked in place, forced to endure it as both Kakashi and Akio blazed from existence, disappearing from the garden one more time._

_The green light faded from the clearing and for the first time she saw herself standing there. The Sakura in her sights blinked, then looked around, walking over and gathering up the scroll before flinging it far away. She recalled with irony that at the time she'd wished it was a dream, that what was happening couldn't possibly be real. _

_It was real then and it was real now, the memory playing out in her subconscious exactly as it had transpired on that terrible day. She watched herself crumble, sobbing into the grass, cries racking her body in her denial and her grief. _

_And suddenly she could move again, could fly again, and she pumped her wings as hard as she could. _

_The garden dwindled to a speck beneath her as she returned to the sky, the current keeping her aloft and steering her gently away. The wind brushed her feathers but she barely noticed, concentrating only on the almost primal need to flee, to fly, to escape her demons and put distance between her body and the place where memories roamed._

_----_

She woke slowly and it was just as disorientating as if she'd started awake. Sleep leeched energy from her tired body and she felt weak and drained, which led her to wonder idly how long it had been since she'd eaten. One day? Two?

Not that it really mattered, any more.

She rolled over and winced as her muscles took that as their cue to start aching. She'd been running hard this last week or so, trying to distract herself from her situation by travelling till exhaustion set in and she was forced to stop and let sleep take over. It was a good system. Once she'd started running she found it was easier to just keep going as long and as hard as her body could manage, pushing herself forward until she collapsed.

Orochimaru...Sasuke...her mission...her feelings. All was forgotten in the trance-like state she'd settled into after Kakashi was torn from her. She slept only when her body demanded it and ate only when she thought she'd be too weak to continue without doing so. These trivial things like food and rest seemed so irrelevant, so unimportant now.

In fact, nothing seemed to matter any more. She was alone again - not again, truthfully, but for the very first time. She'd never felt what it really meant to be alone until now, in these dreamlike moments, surrounded as she was by memories and trees.

She'd come to hate the forest. Trees would forever be linked to earthy smells and Kakashi's face, to soft hands on a heavy scalp and hard training under a waning sun.

She hated the forest, and she loved it, too.

----

She made fires only when she had the energy or inclination and tonight she half-craved the warmth a small one would bring. It wasn't that she was cold, since they were only halfway through autumn now, but a campfire brought instead a comforting warmth, a misleading sense of companionship even if one was alone. She needed that more than anything else.

Because she'd set up a fire anyway she emptied her second to last waterskin into a pot and threw in some noodle mix, refusing to remember other nights when she'd done the same. Back then the evenings had been filled with happiness and a kind of security because back then she'd shared them with someone else.

Her eyes tickled and she sniffed, not wanting to cry again. She'd done enough of that back at the homestead. She stared fixedly at the fire and tried to ignore the memories but images played out over the flames, lulling her back to sleep, and as she drifted off into dreamtime oblivion she couldn't help but return to that horrible day.

----

_Sakura cried. _

_She was kneeling, the dirt soaking up her tears as they slid down her face and dropped from her chin. She'd always been quick to cry at slights when she was a child and for her friends when she was older and had seen the rough justice they could expect from their lives as shinobi. She'd cried in the past because of physical pain; because her dreams came to nothing; because love had forsaken her and she had been left without._

_But this was different. She couldn't seem to stop the tears slipping down her cheeks and they were a defiant comfort, the only part of her that was warm now. Kakashi's departure had assured that her body and heart were frozen, chilled by the loss of his presence, his steady persona no longer there to protect and care for her. She knew she'd been relying on him ever since they'd left Konoha - perhaps even before that, since they'd formed the team - but she'd underestimated the extent of the support he'd provided. He was her teacher, her comrade, her brother, her friend, and only now that he was gone could she admit to herself that she may have wanted him to become something more. _

_He calmed her, encouraged her, cared for her, looked after her. Without him she felt broken. Without him she felt empty._

_In a way, he completed her._

_She was too numb to even chide herself for the direction her thoughts were taking, that it wasn't proper or right to think about her teacher that way. The scales had fallen all those weeks ago when he'd collapsed in her arms and the idea remained inside of her, kept within like a secret, precious pearl. And it would have stayed that way, hidden and nurtured, never to see the light of day were it not for the extreme and tragic events jolting her, bringing the feelings to light. If these feelings were real, if she truly felt this way, then she had managed to learn a little too late that she loved Kakashi._

_She loved him. But how? She loved her parents. She loved Naruto. She loved Ino. Tsunade had once told her she had a great capacity for love, that that was what made a true medic-nin. Regardless of talent, of learning, if you couldn't love, wholly and unconditionally, you would never really succeed as a medic. When explaining this to her, the Godaime had paused mid-sentence, and when she spoke again her voice was low and raw. "I gave up healing because the ones I loved were torn from me, and I thought my reasons for being a medic-nin were gone. It wasn't until much later that I realised love isn't only focussed to a fine point and reserved for our most precious people. While they do get a greater portion and a special kind of love, the rest of our heart can operate separately, with affection and appreciation for people we don't know and may never meet. The true strength of a medic-nin lies not in your memorisation of jutsus or manipulation of chakra, but in your kindness towards and love for everyone caught up in the cycle of life."_

_Then maybe she had loved him all along. Oh, not from the very beginning, when she was twelve, and innocent, and carefree. Then her heart had belonged to her handsome, brooding teammate, the challenge she'd set herself, the crush that had ruined a friendship he'd never known existed. She'd offered him her love - her life - and he'd refused her, choosing to leave his two best friends behind in that insane and suicidal quest for revenge. She had meant nothing to him compared to the hatred that consumed him, defined him, sent him to the fate that had awaited him off in the Sound._

_So, he left. Naruto left. But she remained and so did _he_. She knew he had his demons - they all did, to a degree - but he kept them in his heart and worked to appease them, forget them, by immersing himself in missions and sometimes helping her train. Occasionally she caught him with a faraway look in his eye, but the one time she'd asked about it he'd just smiled and told her he was thinking._

_"About what, Kakashi-sensei?"_

_"About things I cannot change, but would do differently if I could."_

_She remembered being confused, as his words had seemed to contradict themselves. "If you can't change them, why are you thinking about doing them differently at all?"_

_He'd blinked at her and she'd experienced an awkward moment, wondering if she'd said the wrong thing. Then he smiled and reached out, ruffling her hair. "You're right, Sakura. That was selfish of me, doing that."_

_She still didn't know what he was talking about but didn't question him further, instead rolling her eyes at the patronising gesture. "Geez, sensei, I'm not a kid any more, you know. I'm fourteen already!"_

_He kept smiling but removed his hand and raised the other one also, holding her off in a placating gesture. "Right, right. A woman grown, are you?"_

_"You better believe it!" She grinned. He laughed. She thought she'd solved everything but he was just humouring her, as always. She had always been too young, too silly, too caught up, and most recently she'd just been plain too late. To save him. To tell him. To hold him close._

_The seeds of his destruction had been sowed that day they had faced the enemy-nin in the forest, when a woman she hadn't met had held him as Sakura never had. The pain she'd felt when Yumi told her how she'd disarmed Kakashi was nothing compared to the realisation she would never get the opportunity to rectify her neglect. Of course he wouldn't feel the same way - he couldn't, Sakura had to be a child to him, she was his student, he'd never see her as anything more - but there would never be a moment of connection for them now. There would never be an instant of physical closure. All she had were half-formed hopes and pointless dreams._

_She'd failed him even as he'd saved her once more, and his sacrifice not only hurt, it was a bitter pill as well. Whereas Sasuke had left her to her fate, Kakashi had stepped in to help her shape it, to make her destiny her own. In return she had repaid him by not reaching him fast enough and had allowed him to shoulder the responsibility of saving her yet again. Now he was gone and she was still here, still doing the only thing she'd ever been good at, the only thing she'd been able to do better than everyone else in her life._

_Sakura cried._

_----_

She woke a second time and returned to the present; she would have been surprised to find her eyes dry, had she the energy to bring herself to care. She didn't, so instead she continued to stare dully at the fire. Maybe she didn't have any feelings left at all; it was possible she'd been sucked dry and would never feel anything again. If Orochimaru wandered over and sat down right now, she doubted she'd be able to muster up anything but indifference. She was alone now; if he killed her, who would mourn her passing anyway?

Faded red hair and a warm smile; kind green eyes and a tall, strong back. She blinked back the unbidden image of her parents and wondered if the block in her chest had shifted, a bit. She hadn't thought about them in a long time. Hopefully Tsunade had talked to them, explained why she was a risk, told them why she had left them without a word. They lived in a ninja village, they understood about missions. Things might have been easier for them if she hadn't become a shinobi, or at the very least, if she'd been allocated to a different genin group. She'd be an average kunoichi in an average team - not that any of the other genin from her year were in any way sub par, but next to the Uchiha genius and the vessel of the Kyuubi they kind of paled in comparison. She'd done well - or badly, depending on how she wanted to look at it - with her team, being grouped with such amazing talent, and her jounin tutor was easily one of the best shinobi Konoha had ever seen. They were all fantastic, in their own way. All of them, except her.

Years ago she'd had a conversation with Ino, back when the blonde girl was boasting about her teammate being the only one promoted to chuunin.

_"Shikamaru's great," she'd said, smug in her superiority. "Sure, your team has Sasuke, but apart from that it's just you and Naruto."_

_Sakura could have mentioned that the other members of Team Ten were just Ino and Chouji, but she kept silent on that subject and retaliated with, "Don't forget Kakashi-sensei. He's one of the best ninjas in the village - in the whole country, even. Every enemy we've ever faced has known his name and feared it."_

_Ino considered this. "Okay. I'll give you Kakashi. He's pretty cool, but Asuma's awesome too. You should have seen this thing he did -"_

_Sakura had tuned out for the remainder of Ino's enthusiastic listing of Asuma's good qualities, thinking not for the first time that she was a burden to the rest of Team Seven. Naruto was annoying, sure, but she had to admit he had a good heart, unbelievable power, and would never hesitate to rescue a friend in need. Sasuke was Sasuke, and Kakashi-sensei was lazy, never on time, always reading that damn book...but by the same token he always knew how to help them out. Whether it be training Sasuke, looking out for Naruto or knowing just how to reassure her when the boys made her worried, his good points managed to outweigh his bad ones, and happy in that knowledge she tuned back in just as Ino wrapped up her monologue.  
_

_"So that's why Asuma-sensei is cool."_

_Sakura had just nodded. Most of the time it was simply easier to agree with Ino. The girl got feisty about some things and Sakura usually had to hear about them._

Which brought her to another conversation she'd had with Ino, months ago, now. It hadn't seemed important at the time - just another one of her silly crushes - but now that Sakura had had an epiphany regarding her own feelings she felt mean and dirty for betraying her friend.

And then she remembered it didn't matter any more.

She lay down in the dirt and the tears she'd been almost proud of keeping at bay welled up and overflowed, trickling down her face and starting the cycle all over again.

She cried for the glorious dreams of a boy who would be Hokage. She cried for the vengeful heart of a boy who saw his family only in blood-soaked nightmares. She cried for a gentlewoman she'd never met and a polite policeman that she had. She cried for an odd-eyed man who'd taught her many things, and most of all she cried for herself, because she'd never see that man again.

----

She found herself thinking about the past. It wasn't because she wanted to, but because her thoughts returned automatically to that day, and how she'd failed once more. Her subconscious took her there, over and over, because it was as powerless as she herself had been.

_It began where it all ended, with her kneeling in the garden, completely alone. The two packs had toppled over on the grass and she found herself staring at Kakashi's, the flap lying innocently askew. What other dangerous items had he concealed in there?_

_No. She wasn't tempted. She didn't care. She didn't want to know what else he'd brought along, or why he'd had that terrible jutsu in the first place. When had he expected her to use it? On who?_

_And why had he bothered to come with her at all if he was just planning on dying at some point, anyway?_

_She didn't want to consider what he'd been thinking, so she got up, rising slowly to her feet like a withered old crone. She felt like one, aged and weary, drained to the bone, and she wondered if she'd ever have energy again._

_Something tugged at her awareness, called at her to move. She stood dumbly and let the summons wash over her, ignoring it. It couldn't be that important, whatever it was. Not compared to her pain._

_Stubbornly, it pulled again. She resisted but the feeling wouldn't go away. It was a ripple of urgency, a breath of anxiety, and while she couldn't explain it, suddenly she knew she needed to move, to leave the garden in search of something. Of what, she wasn't sure, but her feet moved of their own volition and she was off, racing along the lush pathways, exquisite gardens hemming her in. She barely noticed. She could have been running through the desert for all that the surrounding beauty affected her. _

_Not that much could be appreciated through a film of tears, anyway._

_It was the smell that jolted her, took her feet off their automatic path. She stumbled into another small clearing and came to a standstill, halted by the horrific sight that met her aching eyes. _

_"Did you kill her?" Akio had screamed, and though _she'd_ known the Izanami they had met was an imposter, a fraud, the situation had been too tense to figure out how _he _had._

_But if he'd seen what she was looking at now, there was no way he could have doubted it. There were no excuses that could be made for the real Izanami's current state. She was gone, completely. At least Sakura had been spared Kakashi's mangled corpse. Akio had been given no such concession._

_She stared down at the body, not from morbid fascination but from a numb exhaustion, finding herself unable to look anywhere else. It was strange; she understood this, but couldn't bring herself to believe. This was the cycle of life. People lived and died, and when they moved on from this world those left behind had to mourn, and then move on in their own way._

_Sakura had never been very good at moving on._

_She realised that death came to everyone, but sometimes it was unfair. Sometimes people were taken in the prime of their lives; sometimes they were caught up in events beyond their knowledge, becoming part of machinations they should never have been involved with in the first place._

_Izanami and Akio had been innocent victims, hares trapped in the vegetable patch when all they were doing was minding their own business. Kakashi was a victim too, albeit a knowing one, and she wasn't quite sure if that made it better or worse. Either way, she couldn't bring him back. Either way, she was alone._

_And while she couldn't do anything about that, the least she could do was give Izanami a decent burial. She'd never met the girl, but she had a feeling they would have been friends._

_Falling to her knees, she pulled a kunai from her thigh pack, pressing the tip into the grass. She was going to ruin the weapon, catching it on small rocks and such, dragging it through the dirt, but she didn't care. One kunai was nothing compared to what had already been lost in this battle, these circumstances._

_She started digging._

_It took a long time. Even with chakra-strength, one little kunai wasn't really the greatest choice for making a big hole. No doubt she could have gone looking for a trowel, or even a shovel, but once she'd found Izanami's body she felt an eerie reluctance to leave it until she'd seen it safely into the ground. It was strange, but she felt like it was her duty to put the girl into a grave, to give her that respect, at least, since from the look of it she'd been here for weeks. She could have done a quick scan to find out just how long, but she found she didn't want to know. She owed to the girl, since all of this had been indirectly her fault. Or had she been directly the cause? Had her choice influenced Yumi or would things have turned out like this anyway?_

_The thoughts and accusations did laps around her brain until she dropped the kunai and brought her hands to her head, pressing against her skull with a stifled gasp. It hurt, but she deserved it, she was alone, she deserved it -_

_And then she looked down and found she'd finished the hole. She was kneeling at the bottom, the edges rising around her. She'd finished a four-foot deep grave and she hadn't even noticed._

_Oh, the irony. Here she was, alive and in a grave, while Kakashi was gone and she didn't even have a body to bury alongside her heart. She was stuck with these feelings, lost without closure, doing penance by digging the night away in a garden she never should have entered in the first place._

_She got up and hefted herself out of the hole. Walking over to Izanami's body, she gazed down at the girl. Strange, how beauty lingered even in death. The curve of a greying cheek, the tilt of a peeling mouth - dying had not changed these constants. It had just eroded them, somewhat._

_So as not to disturb anything too much, she constructed a chakra web that sparked into existence below the body, lines appearing and crisscrossing and constructing a makeshift stretcher that lifted up by itself. She guided it to the hole and positioned the girl gently within, calling back the chakra only when the corpse was resting on the bottom. She walked to the edge and stared down into the darkened reaches of the grave, marvelling absently at how moonlight gave the girl some lustre and almost fooled her into thinking she was alive after all. _

_Almost. And foolish it was, having second thoughts at this point. Izanami was dead and that was that._

_She looked away and didn't look again as she returned the dirt to the hole, keeping her eyes averted while shovelling the soil back over the corpse. It was silly, how long it took to dig a grave when it took only minutes to close it back up. She was pressing the dirt back down in no time, and if she squinted, in the moonlight it was almost as if she'd never been here. _

_But she had been, of course. And as she struck the kunai point down to mark the spot, she thought bitterly that everything she touched turned to ashes, was broken or ruined by her hands._

_A medic-nin, was she? A bit pointless, if she was also poison, and tainted everything around her. She could save lives, certainly, but she'd take them in the end._

_She stood up, brushing the dirt from her knees. The moon was high overhead now, bathing the clearing in light. She'd wasted so much time sorting a burial out that she'd lost travel hours, and now that she'd completed the task her skin prickled, tingled. She wanted to run, to get away from here, to put distance between herself and this garden of regret. She moved, about to go back to the packs when a voice interrupted her._

"Sakura."

_She started. Had this happened? She didn't recall someone else being there. It didn't correlate with her other memories of that night. _

"Sakura, wake up."

_Wake up? She only _wished_ this was a dream._

"Sakura!"

She blinked. The scene evaporated. She was back in the forest and the faint inkling of dawn touched the trees around her. Something moved at the edge of her vision and she turned her head quickly, but it was only an escaping wisp from her burnt out campfire. Her forgotten pot of noodles lay to the side, coagulated and gross.

She closed her eyes again. She'd been remembering the events of that night and somehow she'd crossed the border into sleep. It had been a bad idea, losing herself in memories like that. She hadn't eaten again and it felt like a great weight had settled onto her chest.

The weight moved.

She lay perfectly still. Something was wrong. Her depression had become a physical thing and now it was partly on her stomach, partly resting uncomfortably against her ribs. She tried to take a deep breath but she could only manage a shallow one and emotion returned at last, trickling back into her body like a prodigal warmth. It was fear, one she'd never liked but was all too familiar with and -

"Sakura, are you awake?"

_Yes_, but she didn't want to be because reality had become twisted and she was frightened of something that was on her chest and she wasn't sure whether she should look up or not because then her fear would have a basis. And then a faint shadow of something she used to know as courage reappeared and she angled her head upwards before opening her eyes.

A familiar face. A beloved symbol. Two tired looking eyes with an impatient tilt. She gasped. He smiled, canine features widening.

"Hello, Sakura," said Pakkun. "I thought you'd never wake up."

-----------------

-----------

-----

YAY! An update! I managed to get ahead again in my break, so thank you to everyone who wished me luck in that regard, and I hope you enjoy this latest installment. A couple of readers were confused with the Kakashi/Akio/scroll part from chapter 11, but hopefully this clears things up, somewhat. If you're still unsure, you're welcome to email me, I think I've said before I'm more than happy to explain any part of the fic that is hard to follow.

Thanks as usual to the Unholy Trinity - DS, Molly and Candice, I'd never get this done without your help. And sureasdawn - reading your Kakasaku makes me want to work on my own.

Please let me know what you think:)


	13. Reaction II

Chapter thirteen  
Reaction II

----

Kakashi dreamed.

_The pale light of a Konoha dawn filtered through his apartment window, dust motes making a small halo around each of the photographs that graced his bedside table._

_He stared at them, unwilling to get up from his prone position. He didn't have any plans for today; why leave the comforting warmth of his bed? Instead, he watched the sunlight play off the glass in the frames, and surveyed himself and each of his precious people in turn. _

_There he was, gazing back out with a serious expression, regarding him through the photograph and across the gulf of time. Back then everything had to have a reason; he'd needed rules for living and existed in strict accordance to them. It had taken tragedy for him to re-evaluate the importance of things and people, and his eyes moved next to the unwitting catalyst of those terrible events._

_Rin. A half-smile graced her lips and he was almost tempted to consider it a secretive one, had she not been incapable of any artifice at all. She'd been a nice girl, a good girl, and hadn't deserved being matched up with them on the team. She couldn't have known - hell, at that point, _he _didn't know - that he was unlucky, he was poison, and that anyone he let close would die before their time. She'd lived a bit longer than his other teammate; but the Hatake legacy, his very own curse, consumed them all in the end and she had been no exception._

_Obito smirked out almost defiantly, Uchiha eyes dark and with a hint of haughtiness behind those ridiculous goggles. How callously Kakashi had treated him, always assuming his own superiority. It had taken the ultimate sacrifice to show him the error of his ways, which was partly why he had accepted Obito's parting gift in the end. Sometimes you needed to punish yourself in order to learn, and he did penance every time he opened his left eye. While Obito had been a victim of the curse as well, at least he lived on a bit, in this way._

_Behind them stood their sensei, eyes crinkled into that familiar, maddening smile, the one that promised everything would be okay. Kakashi hated that smile because it was a lie and offered only false assurances, but he hated it more because he'd been smiling at the end as well. When he gave his life for the people, the village, the ideals he lived by and believed in, even then he'd had that damn smile on his face. For that, Kakashi could never forgive him. For that, Kakashi could never forgive himself._

Enough. _He looked over at the other photo, the newer one, colours more vibrant and cheerful than the sepia tone of the first. There he was, again, smiling this time. He couldn't remember why, exactly - had he been setting an example or was he just relieved to finally have the two boys in front of the camera? Hmm, maybe it had been both. Either way, neither of his male team members had followed his lead, as both stared out with serious looks._

_Naruto's usually cheerful face had been taken over by a frown, eyes narrowed at his closest friend and eternal rival. He looked anything but happy, but Kakashi remembered the boy had been bursting with excitement at being one step closer to his dream, and any annoyance could only be fleeting._

_He wished he could say the same for Sasuke, who returned Naruto's look with a glower of his own. The Uchiha of this team was a mirror of the one from his own. They had the same eyes and the same hair, but where Obito was all too often lighthearted, Sasuke had rarely been amused at anything. Kakashi could hardly remember an occasion where a smile - a true smile - had ever graced his lips. _

_Smiling...Sakura. He let his eyes finally rest on her happy countenance, bent over between them, the heart of the team. She balanced the boys and made his job a hell of a lot easier, and how had he repaid her? He'd let her become another victim, had acted impulsively and left her to the ravages of isolation, where Orochimaru would -_

_A hand snaked around his waist and he stiffened in surprise, shocked that he'd let an intruder not only breach his apartment, but also get close enough to...embrace him? Afraid, he looked down. The arm that held him loosely was small and fair-skinned, almost stark against the dark material of the comforter. Long fingers tucked themselves under his chest and his breath hitched. What was this?_

_So as not to startle the other occupant of his bed, Kakashi feigned a yawn, stretching carefully and inching himself over until he'd rolled entirely onto his side. And then he forgot to breathe altogether when he saw a familiar head of pink hair spread out across the pillow beside him. Her face was relaxed, innocent in repose, and he stared unbelievingly until her eyelashes fluttered under the weight of his stunned regard. She blinked sleepily, and then she was smiling, lips curving as she brought a hand up to rub at her face._

_"Morning," she mumbled, and the shock intensified. Not only was she unfazed at waking up beside him, but she didn't seem to find it odd? He allowed himself to hope. Was this...a usual occurence?_

_"H-Hey," he managed, sliding his own hand carefully up behind her body and pushing an unruly strand of hair away from her cheek. His fingers were shaking but she didn't seem to notice, closing her eyes and leaning into his touch. _

_"Mmmm."_

_His hand stilled and then he moved it again, giving in to desires he'd never allowed himself to have, stroking over her cheek and coming to rest lightly on her lips. She smiled again and he marvelled at the sensation under his fingertips, before she leaned in further and pressed her lips to his skin. _

_If he'd started breathing again he couldn't tell. He was frozen, captivated, completely under her spell as she pulled back and angled up, mouth moving towards him with the intent to capture his own. His eyes drifted shut as he surrendered to the emotions, uncaring of what his conscience or anyone else thought because she was here, with him, beside him, body flush against him and she was coming closer, moving in, about to kiss him -_

And then the dream shattered as he jerked to wakefulness, unsatisfied, unfulfilled, and worst of all, uncomprehending of what the hell had just occurred.

----

His eyes were open but fuzzy light was all he could see, and he had the sudden, terrifying thought that he was stranded now, and blind. And then shadows faded into his vision while colours appeared and coalesced, and after blinking a few times he was able to determine he was somewhere in a rainforest and there were trees on either side.

Funny how everything came full circle, really.

He had another disturbing moment when he felt an arm across his chest again, and hoping - praying - that somehow at least part of the dream was true and Sakura was here, he gathered his thoughts and looked down.

_Nope. Not Sakura._ The hand across his torso was larger and male, and covered with dark hairs. He slid out from under its grasp, and, wincing at the ache in his muscles, rolled over on the damp soil, to find Akio still unconscious and splayed on his side in what looked to be a rather uncomfortable position. They'd ended up here somehow, and it seemed as though the policeman had landed on top of him. They appeared to be safe though; they were both breathing, and really, that was all that mattered.

He relaxed and moved into a crouch, lips starting to curve up into a smile. For the moment, Akio had escaped the curse and lived to see another day. But then events caught up with him and the smile fled his face before it even formed. Akio _was_ alive, but he probably wouldn't be thanking Kakashi for that any time soon. Indirectly, unintentionally, he and Sakura had caused Izanami's death and from what he'd seen of Akio's reaction, the policeman was a broken man.

And now it looked like Kakashi was stuck with him. In an instant of confusion, a split-second decision had managed to rip him and Sakura apart. She was back at the homestead, completely at the mercy of Yumi, should she decide to return, and he was...where was he?

_Not dead_.

It finally registered that the reason he'd been spurred into action, the whole point of trying to reach Akio in time had been to stop him from opening the dangerous scroll entrusted to him by the Hokage. The _Kamikaze no Jutsu_. The ultimate act of sacrifice, the final act of defence a hired shinobi could grant a customer under his protection. A spell of painless death was inked into the parchment, and promised the user a quick and gentle passing. It was reserved for the one in their care, and Kakashi had kept it for Sakura's sake, assuming that she would prefer it to whatever Orochimaru had in store. That was why Tsunade had given it to him, after all. _Promise me you'll use it_, she'd said, and he'd agreed.

But something was very wrong. Not only had the scroll failed to kill either him or Akio, it had also transported them some distance and separated them from Sakura. Tsunade herself had handed it to him. If it wasn't the _Kamikaze no Jutsu, _then it had to be a different scroll, labelled incorrectly. For all her faults, Tsunade was a careful woman, a perfectionist in many ways. As a medic-nin, she had to be. This negligence was not something she usually displayed and it was worrying, to say the very least.

And then he remembered they were facing an enemy who could be anyone she chose to be. It was entirely possible - and suddenly very probable - that Tsunade had never seen the scroll, and it was Yumi herself who had handed the damn thing to him. The damn thing that had turned out to be more - and less - than what it had appeared to be.

He hadn't questioned it at the time because Sakura was her apprentice, and he knew the Godaime was fiercely protective of those close to her heart. But she was also the strongest kunoichi Konoha had ever seen, and this offer of an easy way out disturbed him now, with the luxury of hindsight. If this was truly what had happened, he needed some way of warning the Hokage, some way of giving her an abridged version of recent events, and the threat that they faced in this Yumi. He was unable to sense the change with his Sharingan but possibly the Byakugan would have more luck. And the Inuzukas had an amazing sense of smell; maybe they'd be able to sniff impostors out. There were skills around that had the capacity to succeed where he had failed, but more than likely they wouldn't think to look, would have no idea of what lurked in their midst. The Hokage had authority over Konoha and the possibilities were endless for someone able to infiltrate the Godaime's office and take on her likeness. His village was in danger and there was nothing he could do.

He was spared further thought as Akio rolled over, finally awakening. He sat up and blinked a few times, taking in his surrounds before fixing on Kakashi with wide eyes.

"I am terribly sorry," Akio said, and Kakashi suppressed a bitter laugh at irony's reappearance in this comedy of errors, "but where are we, Kakashi-san?"

"That," he replied, rising, "is a very good question, indeed."

----

Akio had reacted against type; he was falsely cheerful and seemed unwilling to discuss the events that had brought them here, for which Kakashi was profoundly grateful. He'd rather not go over it all again because thinking about it nudged the lump inside his chest and he had more pressing issues to concern himself with, at the moment. He couldn't chase after Sakura until he'd formulated some sort of plan, and he couldn't do that until he knew where he was and what he was going to do about Akio. Because, policeman or not, the man would slow him down, and time was of the essence.

It was his guess that Yumi would return to Sound - or wherever she was based - before returning to attack them again, which led him to believe Sakura would be safe for a couple of days at most. The worst part was not knowing how long they'd been out, as things could be coming to a head and he wouldn't have a clue. He needed to figure something out and get going, because even though he had faith in her strength and knew she was strong in her own right, most of the time _she_ did not. He wanted to be there to help her, to protect her. She was one of the only precious people he had left, and if he wasn't going to pretend any more...

...she was the most important person in his life.

He didn't even want to consider if she could ever come to feel the same way about him. At the moment, it was irrelevant. His feelings didn't have to be reciprocated, but she _did_ have to live through this, and he would do everything in his power to make certain that she would.

But he sure wasn't much help just sitting in some forest, mooning over his fate. He needed to do something, to take action, to lessen the distance between them, to bring Sakura closer to himself.

"Akio," he said, and the man glanced over, an uncertain look upon his face, "I'd advise you to move back."

He complied and Kakashi wondered if Akio had gotten used to him ordering him around all the time, since telling the policeman what to do seemed to be all he ever did of late. It was unimportant for the time being, however, and he cleared his mind as he brought a fingertip to his mouth, nipping at the skin. He waited until a warm trickle of blood seeped from the wound and when the bright drop welled up, he thrust his hand to the ground and smacked the earth.

"_Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" _he cried, and with a flash and a crack a full compliment of nin-dogs puffed into existence and filled the small clearing.

Akio made a small noise and scrabbled backwards, pushing himself awkwardly into the trunk of a tree. He looked like he wanted to disappear into it and Kakashi was almost inclined to tell him it was possible for members of the Yuuhi clan. But, as always, there were more important things to do than joke, and he held his tongue while the dogs capered about and yipped their excitement, happy to be out and eager to do some running. He was glad they seemed to be so energetic, because they'd be getting their chance for exercise very soon.

He searched amongst the milling group, pleased to see them all, but seeking in particular a familiar droop-eyed stare.

"Looking for someone?" came a low voice at his feet, and he glanced down, breaking into a relieved smile to see Pakkun near his legs.

"Quite," he replied cryptically, and motioned for the ninken to be quiet, kneeling next to the pug and clapping a hand onto his jacketed back. "How are you doing?" he asked kindly, unwilling to send his tracker out unless he was up to the task.

"There's problems at home," the dog replied morosely. "The wife wants puppies but I don't know if I'm cut out to be a father, and I'm really not inclined to -"

"I meant," Kakashi interrupted hurriedly, eager to cut off one of the pug's marital diatribes, "how are you physically? Are you right for a journey?"

Pakkun blinked and looked past him, narrowing his eyes at Akio, who was flinching away from one of the more curious nin-dogs. It had come over to sniff at his clothes, a cue for the others to move forward into a semi-circle around the policeman, who looked none too happy about the situation. Kakashi followed Pakkun's gaze and sighed. "It's a bit of a long story."

"I'll bet," returned the dog dryly. "It usually is."

"So, how are you feeling?" He didn't want to harp but he'd prefer to get this show on the road as soon as possible.

"I'm fine, more than ready to do a little recon, although a bit of info wouldn't go astray. Like where we are, who you're looking for, and how you managed to acquire a random civilian."

Akio had by this time gathered his courage and proffered a hand to the nearest dog. It stared at him for a moment, eyes unreadable through its dark glasses, then loped closer and gave his palm a tentative sniff. The rest of the pack watched while the dog came to a decision, and when it gave a low whuff and started licking Akio's fingers, they got to their feet also and moved in for a closer inspection. "H-Hey," Akio stammered, taken aback.

Kakashi turned away from the display of bonding and sighed again. "I can only answer the second two, and it's since occurred to me that I'll need to know the first one in order to determine where to go from here. I'll explain everything while the other guys get our bearings, so if you'll give me a moment?"

"My time is your time." The pug got up and headed over to a patch of sunlight, dropping down onto his belly and warming himself in the glow. Kakashi watched him settle before standing up and crossing to the rest of the pack, drawing their attention from Akio by clearing his throat. They tensed and turned, lines of their bodies immediately alert and poised, ready for whatever order he was about to give.

"I need you to scatter," he told them, and they kept still with their mouths open, panting slightly in anticipation. "Disperse, and take note of landmarks or geographical features that can tell me where we've ended up. Give yourselves a limit of say, one hundred kilometres, and then meet back here with details as soon as you can."

They remained motionless, waiting, and he sighed inwardly, wishing he'd thought things through a little more when he was younger and had trained them. He wasn't sure he was using this correctly, but it was the closest direct order he could think of, and it would have to do.

"_Tsuiga no Jutsu_," he said tiredly, and they exploded from the clearing, racing off in all directions in search of clues. He watched them disappear before going over to Akio and leaning against the tree where the policeman still sat.

"What was that, Kakashi-san?" Akio asked timidly, and he had to applaud the man for keeping his relative cool.

"Tracking Fang technique," said Pakkun, replying before Kakashi had a chance. The dog got to his feet and padded over, regarding the policeman with heavy-lidded eyes. "And what's your story?"

Akio stared at the pug with a face of abject mortification, and Kakashi knew that if the situation had been less urgent he'd probably be very amused. But though they had time to kill while the ninken did their stuff, he needed to use it wisely, and the best thing he could do would be to bring Pakkun up to date.

"Take a seat," he told the dog, and he obliged, always happy to exude as little effort as possible. "I think I need to tell you everything I know."

----

Pakkun listened attentively as Kakashi provided a rundown of the situation, occasionally interrupting to clarify some point or another. When he finished the pug sat back, a thoughtful expression on his perpetually crumpled visage. Akio, meanwhile, looked like someone had clobbered him over the head; his mouth had dropped into an O of surprise somewhere near the beginning of the story, and it had stuck fast as events were played out. The policeman's face had tensed during the parts about him and Izanami, but he'd kept calm and for that Kakashi was relieved.

The ninken would be coming back soon. It had been a long story, just as Kakashi had expected, and the retelling had even been shortened by the various parts he'd chosen to omit. There were some things you told a dog, and there were some things you didn't.

Pakkun had a nose for these things, but while he looked like he wanted to know the parts Kakashi had kept to himself, he seemed to realise that for the moment there were more important things to concern himself with.

"So," the dog said, bringing a leg up to scratch at the base of one ear, "if the scroll had worked correctly you'd both be dead."

Akio paled as Kakashi nodded.

Continuing, Pakkun dropped the leg. "I've heard of the _Kamikaze no Jutsu_. It was used a great deal in the chaos during Yondaime's tenure - made for customers, but sometimes used by weak shinobi themselves." The dog's eyes turned flinty. "So why didn't that tip you off in the first place? This is a near-forbidden jutsu, and it was designed especially for those too weak to fight back. I would have expected more from one of _your_ students, and if you had too you wouldn't be in this mess right now."

Kakashi blanched; he hadn't looked at it from that angle. "I assumed," he said hesitantly, "that the Hokage was trying to stop Orochimaru from gaining the ultimate Sharingan -"

"Oh, pooh," interrupted Pakkun. "She would have just killed them both straight off, if that was the case. It would be a far easier decision to take only two lives, instead of the countless ones that would be lost should Orochimaru obtain this power."

_Would it?_ The numbers were right but the dog had neglected to take in the ties that bind. One of the gateways to Orochimaru's success was Tsunade's salvation, the boy who had become her heart, her brother, her son. And the other was just as important in a different way, the girl who was her disciple, her echo, _herself_. Tsunade could no more kill Naruto or Sakura than Kakashi could, be it personally or indirectly. He'd relinquished one of the pair and endangered the other, and since it was in his power to save Sakura, he was going to give this everything he had. He wouldn't lose her - _couldn't_ lose her, now that he knew how special she was to him.

"She couldn't," he said slowly. Pakkun and Akio looked at him. "She'd never be able to do that. It's why she's such a good Hokage...and why she's such a bad one, as well."

"Sandaime was the same, then," the dog replied. "His reluctance to kill Orochimaru resulted in not only his own death but the -"

They were spared the rest of Pakkun's speech - and Kakashi privately wondered just when the dog had become so interested in politics and village events - as the rest of the ninken thundered into the clearing. They moved straight to Pakkun and starting yipping excitedly, trying to bark over the top of each other.

"Oi," said the dog sharply. "One at a time." They calmed down and Kakashi waited as they reported to Pakkun. Kakashi could understand bits and pieces but the pug was the only one who could interpret entirely, and not for the first time he was glad the dog was here. The last one finished its report and Pakkun nodded, getting up and padding over to where Kakashi still leaned against the tree.

"Right," he said, looking up at him. "Looks like we've somehow ended up in the Waterfall country."

"What!" cried Akio in surprise, and Kakashi was inclined to agree.

"They know this how?" he asked, indicating the dogs.

"Ichi described a monolith that sounds like one built for Shibuki's ascension to leader, while Go reached the coast and said he could see a promontory that seems to be Engan Point, an outcropping of the Earth country."

Kakashi nodded. So the scroll had been a teleportation jutsu disguised as the _Kamikaze_, and a powerful one at that. It had taken two of them from the north of the Earth country and landed them a fair distance southeast, probably a few days of shinobi travel, at the very least. He wondered where they had been headed, where the real location would have been. He had a feeling this wasn't supposed to be where they were meant to end up, and he was suddenly anxious to keep moving in case there'd been some sort of tracker and nins were about to pounce from nowhere, ready to fight. He was primed for battle, but again, it was the issue of time.

"Thank you," he said, turning to address the dogs. "You've all done well." He prepared the seals to dismiss them before Pakkun's dry voice caused him to stop.

"There's more," the dog said, a hint of amusement colouring his tone. "There's a town not too far from here and a couple of _old friends_ are staying there right now."

"Really?" _Old friends?_

"Really. Perhaps you'd like to pay them a visit."

His eye widened as a possibility occurred to him. If the dog was hinting at what he thought he was...then perhaps he would, at that.

He completed the seals to send off the pack and hunkered down next to Pakkun when the smoke cleared, giving the dog a serious look. "If I go and see these people, I'll need you to do something for me."

The dog sighed. "I know. You want me to find her, right?"

Kakashi nodded. He'd expected no less. "I'd go myself but I think more people will work to our advantage. We were in a village in the Earth country called Ontou. I assume it's in the far northwest. If we're less than a hundred kilometres from the coast of Taki, you'll need to -"

"I'll find it," the dog said. "Seems like you're underestimating my ability."

Surprised, Kakashi stared down at him, before smiling ruefully. "I do that a lot," he said, patting the dog on his hitai-ate. "Look...look after her for me. Just until I get there, with these reinforcements."

The pug gave him a gauging look. "She seems to be very important to you."

Again, he was taken aback at Pakkun's intuition. "She is."

"Hmph."

He watched as the pug got to his feet and pressed all four paws into the dirt, arching his back in a cracking stretch. "Don't worry," Pakkun said, giving him one last look, "I'd know that shampoo anywhere."

The comment made no sense to Kakashi but he smiled anyway. "Do your best."

"I will," replied the dog. "I suppose we'll use that method for communication?"

"Yes. That's what it was designed for."

Pakkun nodded. "Very well. I just hope for your sake she's filled out a bit since last time." The muffled words were so low Kakashi wasn't quite sure he'd heard them right, but then it didn't matter because the pug tensed and sprang, jumping up into the trees and bounding off out of sight.

----

He considered some of Pakkun's cryptic words once the dog was gone. There were people in the village that he knew, quite an unexpected coincidence since he was days away from home. He wanted to see them, to have communication with others again...and if they were who he thought they were, possibly beg a favour.

And yet...Tsunade needed to know about Yumi. And she needed to know _soon_. If he'd been less concerned about Sakura, there wouldn't be a choice. He'd simply go back to Konoha and then set out to look for her, armed with some actual weaponry, since it appeared his pack had been left back at the homestead, and with a backup cell of other shinobi. It was a smarter option, he knew that, but there was no way he'd leave Sakura on her own. Not when it was his fault she was out there in the first place.

"I am going to slow you down." Once again, he'd forgotten Akio was there. The policeman was usually quiet, and his presence had just slipped Kakashi's mind. With horrifying clarity he realised Akio was right. Travelling would be painfully slow with a non-shinobi around. Their pace would be torture and even thinking about it made him wince.

"Ah," he said noncommittally. He wondered if there was any nice way of leaving Akio behind, and then immediately scolded himself for the selfish thought. The man's fiancée had not only been killed, she'd been used as a pawn in a game of power that neither of the couple had known anything about. And now he was a long way from home, in the company of the very ninja who had contributed to the events. The least Akio deserved was Kakashi's compassion.

"Do you know what you are going to do?"

Kakashi considered. "No. I have two objectives of equal priority and I need to make a tough choice."

Akio nodded, his face grim. "You wish to return to Ontou and protect Sakura-sama?"

"Yes," he agreed. "But I need to get word to my village of the deceptive capacity this enemy has. She's a threat not only to Sakura but to my home as well."

Akio nodded again. He seemed lost in his thoughts and Kakashi was about to return to his own when the policeman spoke. "I could...I could go to your village for you." His face had taken on an earnest cast and he hurried to continue, as if afraid Kakashi would refuse. "If we somehow found a horse...I am a fair rider. It would not be difficult to make the journey, and to be honest, I almost fancy a trip into the Fire country." His voice dropped to a strained whisper. "I would truly welcome the distraction."

Kakashi hesitated. He wanted to just agree and send Akio off but this was almost too good to be true. It was perfect; he could let Tsunade know what was happening without being deterred from his search for Sakura. But, did he want to let Akio handle this on his own? Would he be safe out there, all by himself?

_Safer than he'd be with you_, a little voice murmured inside his head. _You who is poison..._

He closed his eyes in acquiescence, and when he opened them he gave the policeman a tired smile. "That you would do that for me...I am grateful, Akio."

Kakashi extended a hand and Akio tentatively accepted it. They shook on the deal as a sudden breeze rippled through the forest, reminiscent of that dreadful wind that had brought them here in the first place.

"Well then," Kakashi said, when the moment had passed. "I don't have my pack on me, so unless you have some money, we'll be getting supplies for you the old fashioned way."

"Old fashioned way?" Akio echoed, a confused look on his face.

Kakashi grinned and the motion relieved him, made him think that maybe everything was going to be okay. "Just forget you're a policeman for the moment, because we're going to be breaking a few laws."

----

It was surprisingly easy to "obtain" the things necessary for Akio's journey, despite the policeman's moral quandary over Kakashi's questionable methods.

"It's all right," Kakashi told him for the fourth time as they led their "borrowed" horse out to the highway. "You saw me leave that firewood as repayment."

"But you took the trees from another garden!" Akio responded worriedly.

"It's a forest, Akio. It belongs to everyone." Kakashi added a grand sweep to his statement and looked expectantly at the other man; after a moment they both laughed and Kakashi felt some of the tension lift. If they could laugh it was a sign that things could only improve from here.

They reached the crossroads and halted, the horse whinnying at the unexpected stop.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "So you, uh...remember the direction?"

Akio nodded. "You explained it well, Kakashi-san."

They stood for another moment and then Akio mounted, jumping up onto the back of the horse in a fluid and practiced motion.

"Thank you," Kakashi said again, wondering if he had managed to convey how much this meant to him.

"You are welcome," Akio replied. And then with a quick smile he was off, kicking the horse into action and disappearing down the road. Kakashi watched as he rode away, praying that the scrawled note Akio had tucked into a pocket would sufficiently convey the sense of urgency he felt over the current situation. He could only hope Tsunade would interpret it correctly as he'd employed an old code to keep things confidential.

_No_, he told himself, eventually turning away as the last speck of Akio's form faded from his sight, _everything _will_ be fine. _He'd wrangled a solution to one of his problems, and very shortly, he'd leave to work out the other. But until he heard back from Pakkun, he had time for a bit of investigating. He slipped his hands into his pockets and set off back in the direction of the village, interested and a little confused as to these apparent _friends_ waiting for him there.

----------------------

---------------

------

Notes on jutsus:

_Kuchiyose no Jutsu_: Summoning Technique. Jiraiya and Naruto summon toads, Kakashi summons dogs. I prefer Kakashi.

_Tsuiga no Jutsu_: Tracking Fang Technique. Used in canon to track a particular person and hold them down; I went with the idea that the dogs would need a specific order to work with and this is the closest I could think of.

_Kamikaze no Jutsu_: If in an ACTUAL scroll, unlike the one given to Kakashi, the _Kamikaze no Jutsu_ would kill the user instantly and painlessly in a non-violent manner. You could say it's a euthenasing technique, and would only be used in an extreme situation where it's more important to keep information from passing into enemy hands.

cutemara, I don't _love_ cliffhangers, they just happen. :P Also, enough life for you, PowerfulMind? And selle18, your lovely review made my day. :)

Okay. Hopefully I didn't lose anyone with that whole reintroduction thing, and I really hope I explained enough about why they're not dead, after all. If there's any questions, please don't hesitate to email me or leave a message on my livejournal - I don't bite, honest! I just nibble, sometimes. :D

And yay, Akio's gone. It took me ages to think of a nice way to get rid of him, and this is the best I could come up with. He's fulfilled his destiny as an OC and hopefully we can get back into the swing of things from next chapter onwards.

Thanks as always to DarkenedSakura, Nushi and IcarusT. Labu. Comments and (constructive! Please, make it constructive!) criticism are actively encouraged. Till next week!


	14. Confession

Chapter fourteen  
Confession

----

Kakashi retraced his steps back towards the village, thoughts whirling madly. It was terrible waiting for word from Pakkun, but if his suspicions were correct, he'd be better off in the long run taking the time to check this out. He was lucky they'd developed that technique between them, all those years ago.

He was reluctant to admit it, but as much as he hated his father, he'd managed to learn a lot from him in the time they spent together. Much of Kakashi's early prowess could be attributed to tips and hints Sakumo had slipped him during training, and he remembered one morning in particular when he was about four that had helped more than he could know at the time.

_"What are you doing, Kaka-chan?" His father smiled down at him and used the nickname Kakashi had come to hate. _

_Kakashi scowled at the Shougi board in front of him. A notebook lay on his lap, the pages covered in scribbles and formulae. "I'm trying to figure out a good move that I can use next time we play."_

_His father laughed. "Moves that you create before play are never as good as the ones that come to you during a game. The heat of battle is a much better thinking ground than an empty training field, right?"_

_Kakashi screwed up his face. "I...guess..." he said, not really agreeing. Being under pressure and without a technique didn't sound safe at all._

_Sakumo sat down beside him. "Think of the pieces as symbols. Symbols are power. They are only such because you give them power, and you understand their capacity for that power. How much power does a hisha have?"_

_He scrutinised the piece in the second rank of his soldiers. "Um, a lot?"_

_His father nodded. "It does. It can move nearly anywhere you want it to move. But what is its limit, Kaka-chan? What is its capacity for that power?"_

_"I can only move it up and down, or left and right," Kakashi said slowly. "The limit is that the hisha can't move in a diagonal direction."_

_"Right." His father beamed at him. "It has great power, but there is a strict guideline for that as well. Understanding the limit is understanding the piece."_

_Kakashi nodded._

_"Has that helped, at all?"_

_"Yeah." He grinned up at his father. "Thanks, Dad."_

_"You're welcome." Sakumo noticed the notepad. "Here, give me that. I'll show you something else you might like to think about as well."_

_Kakashi handed him the book and went back to the game board, pushing the pieces around and considering each one's capacity for power. After a minute his father dropped the book down over the board and Kakashi started, glancing down at the childish picture drawn on a fresh page. _

_"A...face?" he asked incredulously. "How does that have power?"_

_Sakumo chuckled. "Look closer. Sure, it's a face, but what are the eyes made up of, what makes the nose?"_

_He leaned over and gave the picture a closer inspection. As his eyes neared it he made out the strokes of familiar hiragana characters, and he nearly gasped as it came together. "It's writing that makes a picture!" he exclaimed delightedly._

_His father bent over also and pointed out the shapes with a pale finger. "The eyebrows are 'he', see? And the eyes, they're 'no'. If you look at the nose, you'll see it's a 'mo' shape, and there's another 'he' that makes up the mouth." He traced the outline of the face itself. "And the chin and ears put together are a 'ji'. Can you pick them all?"_

_Kakashi nodded. "So it's a henohenomoheji?" He crossed his eyes at the long and unfamiliar word and Sakumo laughed again. _

_"That's right, my boy. And it's the best thing for you because it's clever, like you are, and sometimes farmers put it as a face on scarecrows."_

_He scowled at the reminder that he shared his name with a crow-deterrent. _

_"Don't be like that, Kaka-chan. It's a good name, a strong name, and the best personal symbols are the ones where you have a great connection with them. One day, when you're an accomplished ninja, you might want to seal things and make them your own. Think of this picture when you do so, and your power will grow with it. Remember these words, my boy."_

_He smiled once more and Kakashi returned it freely, basking in his father's attention and the affection that they shared._

Despite efforts to the contrary, Kakashi _had_ remembered those words, and when he'd raised the ninken, he'd chosen Pakkun for their leader, and made him a hitai-ate and a small coat to distinguish him from the rest of the pack. He'd hesitated at the coat but had wanted to give the head dog as much power as its capacity would allow, and had spent some time marking out the symbol, drawing each character as carefully as he could. And it had paid off, as his father had promised, and Pakkun's power had grown, allowing him to talk with both Kakashi and the nin-dogs, rendering him invaluable for communication between both.

The Hatake legacy was a curse of sorts, but Sakumo lived on in a number of ways, and not all of them were bad. Kakashi rubbed a hand across the pale skin of his arm, and wished he didn't look so much like his father. Memories were funny things - they warped and twisted until sometimes you couldn't remember if they really happened or you just wished they had.

He shook the thought and recalled another occasion when the _henohenomoheji _had proved its worth.

_He'd dropped into the academy shortly after making ANBU and had time to kill, so he whiled away some hours in the library. He found a scroll that mentioned the possibility of infusing symbols with jutsu and memorised the process, Sharingan carefully storing the information for later use. He summoned Pakkun at his earliest convenience and the pug had worked with him, letting him seep chakra into the symbol on his coat, and patiently waiting as Kakashi had done the same to his newly inked tattoo. It was a slow process, and a difficult one, but when he'd finished they had a perfect communications line, a way of letting the other know what was happening, and a small link to follow each other to. _

_"So if you activate the chakra, our respective symbols will glow and work as a kind of beacon, allowing us to home in on each other?" Pakkun had asked, sounding almost impressed. _

_"Yeah," Kakashi had panted. The jutsu had taken a lot out of him. _

_"Handy," Pakkun decided, and they'd put it to the test. Kakashi summoned him before leaving on a mission to the Water country and activated the jutsu once there; his team had returned a few days later and the pug met them as they ported, waiting on the dock. _

_"So it works, then?" Kakashi drawled, grinning at the dog._

_"Like a charm," he'd agreed._

Surprisingly, they hadn't used it very often, perhaps on only a handful of occasions. He rubbed his bicep reflexively and wished the sign would come soon. He was a patient man with some things, but now that Sakura could be in danger, he was afraid of his control.

----

The village was very small, and reminded him of a shanty town of sorts. The highway had been built, stretching out between major cities, and any number of small villages had sprung up on either side of the road. They were here to offer comfort to weary travellers, and boasted all the amenities of home for an apparently reasonable price.

He had no money, and so any price was _un_reasonable...not that he wanted the kind of 'comfort' they provided here, anyway. And maybe he was being too generous, thinking they offered _everything_. Most of those passing through were merchants with wagon trains...therefore most of those passing through were men. Warui Town - the name in faded paint on a billboard at the gates - offered 'comfort' with this in mind. The town provided two things, women and grog, and from the number of people out and about, it did a roaring trade.

The air was heavy with intermingled odours. The sweet, heavy scent of sake blended incongruously with the sour smell of unwashed bodies, and the ammonia reek of stale urine flavoured the air as well. Kakashi wrinkled his nose and stepped aside as a pair of brawling drunkards spilled out of the closest pub, a mob following them and cheering the fight on. He shook his head and kept walking, clamping down on the gnawing urgency that curled within his belly. Maybe he'd made the wrong choice, deviating from his course to enter the village. But who else could Pakkun have meant, when he'd hinted at _old friends?_

A young girl with a heavily made up face beckoned to him from the shadows of an alley. "You're a handsome one, Silvertop," she cooed, tugging at the tie of her wrinkled kimono. He looked away, then stopped in horror. _Silvertop_? Had the dye worn off already?

Glancing around, he spotted a cleaner looking bar of sorts, with glass-paned windows instead of open holes and good luck curtains. He crossed the street and bent down upon reaching a window, pretending to peer inside.

_Dammit._ At some point in the abrupt journey from Ontou to here, the colour had leeched from his hair, returning it to his natural silver. It looked a bit darker than before, a metallic gray now. He was thankful for at least that small mercy, but it would still be obvious to anyone that was looking for him specifically. And of course the eye patch had been left behind...or had it? He fumbled in his knee pocket and withdrew a crumpled ball of string and leather. _All right! _One thing, at least, that hadn't gone wrong. He tied it into place and was pondering what he could use for a bandanna when a soft voice caused him to turn.

"That more your style, huh?" He glanced at the speaker to find the young street walker from before.

"My style?" he echoed confusedly, still caught up in the bandanna idea and wondering why he'd never thought of it in the past. She gestured and he turned again, actually registering where he'd been staring at this time.

A brothel. _Of course_ he'd been peering worriedly through the windows of a brothel. His luck just got better and better. He sighed and looked away from a large lady inside who waggled her fingers suggestively at him, and was about to make up some reason for his perusal when he caught a brush of some very familiar chakra.

He considered walking off but there was a possibility he could be followed, so he ignored convention and disappeared in a puff of _Kumokasumi Senko_, reappearing in a swirl of leaves at the far end of the street. He ducked into a nearby alleyway to get his bearings and tried to sense that chakra again.

He could feel it. It was like a tingle across his skin, and opening himself up to it made the hairs on his arms stick up, as if he was in the calm before a lightning storm. He relaxed his chakra as much as he'd allow, unwilling to endanger himself by giving in to, or challenging, that dark, primeval force. They were two streets away, and with no word from Pakkun, it was still the plan to check it out.

Kakashi had no desire to run into other street walkers or be approached by people he'd never met, so he boosted his legs and leapt lightly to the roof of a building overlooking the alleyway. He then jumped across a few other buildings until he reached his destination, dropping down onto the street.

He found himself outside a bar that had signage hinting at other pleasures, but it seemed less overt than a lot of the places he'd seen already in his short time in Warui Town. He was well aware of what went on in these places, but despite his penchant for the _Icha Icha_ books, they weren't really his scene. There was a line between fiction and reality, and it was one he preferred not to cross.

He'd prefer not to cross the threshold of this establishment, either, but some things had to be done.

...Or not, as fate would have it. No sooner had he stepped forward to traverse the street, the door to the bar flew open, and a white-haired man stumbled out, rich voice proclaiming loudly that he loved all the girls there and would be back as soon as possible. A louder voice issued from behind the man, and Kakashi was not surprised at all to see a familiar blonde youth run out behind him. "We're never coming back, Ero-Sennin!" Naruto yelled, coming up behind Jiraiya and smacking him soundly on the head. "All you ever do is spend all our money and make a fool out of yourself, so from now on it's just regular inns and single-sex onsens!"

"Naruto, you say that every time," Jiraiya replied, rubbing his head and wincing.

"Well, this time I really mean it."

"Mou, you say _that_ every time too!"

Kakashi wondered absently what Naruto would say in response to that, but it was at that moment the boy looked up, crinkling his nose. "Smells like..." he muttered to himself, before catching sight of Kakashi in the middle of the street.

There was a moment of shared stupefaction. Kakashi had been watching them interact for a full minute but he was unprepared for the rush of familial affection that hit him when Naruto made eye contact. There was something - had always been something - in the boy's clear blue gaze that humbled him. It was admiration akin to complete faith; Naruto had trusted in his abilities even when _he_ hadn't, and even in this instant of recognition Kakashi could see the unshakable belief that if he was here then everything was okay.

The familiar twisting started in his gut again. It wasn't okay. Naruto had always_ trusted_ and he suddenly realised why it hurt. The boy saw him as Kakashi had seen his own sensei, and how had _that_ faith turned out?

He started as Naruto launched himself at him, pushing past a calm Jiraiya and running over, stopping short just before reaching him and crossing the last stretch at a more sedate walk. The boy hesitated upon coming close and looked like he was debating the appropriateness of giving him a hug. Kakashi waited as he reached a decision before Naruto stretched out a hand and gave him a hearty clap on the arm, apparently restricting himself to this gesture.

"Kakashi-sensei!" He enthused, voice welcoming even if his lack of physical affection was not. "I didn't think we'd see you again until all this was over. And you're not wearing your mask! I almost didn't recognise you and you're not disfigured at all, I owe Kiba money now, and me and the Ero-Sennin have been all over the place, and what about you and Sakura-chan?"

Jiraiya followed Naruto over and stood next to the boy, crossing his arms.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto was glancing down the street now, looking for his teammate. He looked up, confused. "Where is Sakura-chan?"

Kakashi couldn't meet his eyes, didn't want to see that blind faith crumble. It wasn't deserved and he'd never asked for it; all it did was cause them both pain when he failed to meet the boy's expectations. He'd screwed up, again, and the last thing he needed was to lose the trust of his remaining student.

Jiraiya caught the evasion and pinned Kakashi with a look of his own. Understanding passed between them; a moment and the raw look Kakashi could feel on his face was apparently all the Sannin needed, and the older man sighed, pushing a hank of white hair from where it had fallen over his shoulder.

"Naruto," he said to his apprentice. "Go back, settle the bill, and then meet us at the Yoi Tavern on the next street over."

The boy looked like he wanted to argue, but Jiraiya gave him a firm shove and sent him off down the road. "Hurry now," he called. "If you're lucky, I'll treat you to dinner."

"Food threats don't work, Ero-Sennin," Naruto groused, but Kakashi couldn't help but notice his steps picked up a little after that. When he'd taken a corner and was out of sight, Jiraiya gave Kakashi another measuring look.

"I assume it's a long story, and I'm not getting any younger, so you can tell it to me over a low table and a warm cup of sake. Besides," he grinned, "you look like you could use a drink."

He didn't drink very often, but for once Kakashi was inclined to agree.

----

The place was a surprisingly upmarket bar and inn and they were ushered to their booth by a demure, reasonably clad waitress. They ordered and Kakashi wondered if Jiraiya's tastes had changed, despite the scene he'd witnessed earlier.

The older man watched the girl go collect their drinks and sighed wistfully once she was out of earshot. "Ah, it's the quiet ones I like the best, and the more layers of clothing, the better." He leaned forward and continued in a conspiratory fashion, "Helps get the imagination working, you know."

_Or maybe not._

Kakashi gave him a flat stare and the Sannin sighed again, moving back into his seat and returning effortlessly to serious mode. "She's alive," he said, and Kakashi nodded, even though it hadn't been a question. "Orochimaru?" he hazarded, and this time Kakashi had to shake his head.

"Not exactly. The woman we're facing -" Jiraiya's eyebrows shot up, but he refrained from commenting, "-appears to be a subordinate of his, and has a family member, a brother, that I assume is higher up in the ranks. I haven't seen enough of her fighting to say exactly how skilled she is, but possibly high chuunin level tai- and ninjutsu. She also has a _hiden_ that would have to be A-rank, at least."

"A _hiden_?" Jiraiya echoed.

"Yes. A jutsu that allows her to use the body of a sacrifice and change its appearance to that of anyone she chooses. I assume it's by investing chakra into the corpse, making the power of the copy proportionate to the chakra given. It cannot be seen through by the Sharingan. I'm not sure about the Byakugan but I've sent Tsunade a missive and hopefully she'll know more than I do."

"This jutsu," Jiraiya murmured. "It sounds familiar..."

"You've heard of it?"

"Something like it, at least. It would have to be about twenty-five years ago now..." The Sannin trailed off, brow creased in thought. After a moment he looked up and gave Kakashi an apologetic smile. "No, I can't remember. One of the perils of getting old, my boy; your faculties just ain't what they used to be."

Oddly deflated, Kakashi gave a tight smile in return. He'd gotten his hopes up when Jiraiya thought he'd heard of it, but again, he was no better off. He rubbed his left arm reflexively. _But no worse off, either._

"Here you are!"

Naruto dropped the packs under the table before slipping into the booth beside Jiraiya. His cheeks were flushed and it looked like he'd run all the way from the other inn. His eyes were bright and there was a determined cast to his features that Kakashi knew only too well. Naruto had made up his mind about something, and there wasn't a force powerful enough in all the world to sway him.

"Kakashi-sensei," the boy said, and his heart sank. He'd hoped he'd be able to fortify himself with a few strong drinks before explaining what had happened, again. "Where is Sakura-chan?"

He was given a short reprieve as the waitress returned, carefully setting the sake bottle and two bowls in front of the older men. She bowed and asked Naruto respectfully if he'd like one too, but he scoffed at the question and asked for tea.

"Sake's stupid," he said, sending a scowl at Jiraiya, who cheerfully ignored him and took a deep swig from his bowl. "It's a terrible vice that makes you do idiotic things, and I hope never to turn out like _some_ people who act like halfwits under the influence."

The waitress stared at him, admiration plain on her face. "Yes, young master," she breathed, then glided off to prepare his tea.

Jiraiya set his bowl down. "See what an excellent example I set for my apprentice?" he said proudly.

"You set a terrible example, Ero-Sennin!" Naruto shouted, missing the waitress' return as he turned to face Jiraiya.

"Now now, Naruto, it's 'do as I say, not as I do', as you know."

The boy looked like he had a response to that, but Kakashi cut him off before the conversation could escalate.

"Naruto," he said, refilling his sake bowl. He'd managed to down two full cups of it while the pair exchanged words, and he felt ready to tell once more how he'd failed everyone, especially Sakura.

The boy looked at him.

"How long has it been since we left Konoha?" he asked, and Naruto considered.

"A few months?" he guessed. "A season at least, since we're midway through autumn now."

"Right," Kakashi agreed. "So, three months ago Sakura and I set out from the village and headed northwest, working our way up into the Earth country..."

He told them how they'd travelled through the forest and trained in the rain. He described the battle against the enemy-nin and mentioned his own negligence in investigating Yumi's ability further. He spoke about their first impressions of Ontou and the fire that had claimed the inn, and then moved on to Izanami's 'generosity' with allowing them to stay. Finally, he got to Yumi's duplicity and the _Kamikaze_ scroll, which had worked incorrectly and wound him up here.

"Wait a minute," interrupted Naruto before Kakashi was quite finished. "You honestly believed the Obaa-san would give you a _death_ scroll?"

Kakashi blinked. Wasn't that what Pakkun had said too? "Yes," he replied. "She was troubled enough to temporarily exile us, so I didn't think anything of it at the time."

Naruto shook his head. "No way. Maybe she used to think like that, but she changed ages ago. I thought you'd know that, Kakashi-sensei." Surprisingly, the faith was still there in his clear blue gaze, and only his voice sounded disappointed.

Clearing his throat, Kakashi continued. "Well, anyway. So the jutsu failed, obviously, and set both Akio and myself down in a forest not too far from here. I summoned the ninken and got them to check out the surrounds, as well as sending Pakkun off to track Sakura's current whereabouts."

"Will Pakkun find her? Is she gonna be okay?" Naruto sat forward abruptly, dislodging his untouched teacup. Kakashi whipped a hand out to right it before any real damage occurred, and he froze as a bit of the cool liquid sloshed over his hand. He stared at the wet patch, unwilling to look up.

"I don't know, Naruto. If Pakkun hadn't hinted you'd be here, I'd be out there with him now. His nose is far superior to my own, but I can't stand not being able to do anything myself." He clenched his fists and a dribble of the tea slid down into his palm. "I've messed up. Sakura's in danger because I couldn't protect her and I'm afraid that next time I'm going to do it all again. Can you - _will_ you - come along with me when Pakkun finds out where she is?"

Naruto nodded. "Danger in numbers, and all that."

"Naruto, it's _safety_ in numbers," Jiraiya corrected absently, running a finger around the rim of his cup, but Kakashi found the misquote strangely accurate. Maybe Sakura would be okay, at that, since now they were apart.

He fell silent. His throat felt raw from talking and he took another big gulp of sake to soothe the obstinate ache.

_Ow. _So maybe sake wasn't the best choice, but they didn't have any water, and he'd already had a few glasses of the stuff. It wouldn't hurt to have some more. He took another gulp. Maybe he just wasn't used to it because he didn't drink very often. He'd have to rectify that. Sake was pretty good. He went to take another drink but his bowl was empty. When had that happened?

_Oh well. Better fill her up_. Her poured some more sake and watched as the clear liquid filled up the cup, stopping only when it was nearly overflowing, the delicate meniscus fascinating him for some reason. The challenge - because there had to be a challenge, didn't there? - was to bring it to his mouth without spilling any. Could he do it? Of course he could. He was a ninja.

"I'm a ninja," he told Naruto seriously.

The boy stared at him. "Are you all right, Kakashi-sensei?"

He paused, the challenge cup halfway to his lips. "Of course I am. Why would you even think such a thing?" He raised the bowl the rest of the way and sipped. _Booyah! _He'd done it. He was _definitely_ a ninja. And quite possibly invincible. He eyed the sake bottle and calculated if he'd be able to pour a bigger amount into a bigger bowl and then drink _that_ without spilling it. His eye lit up. Maybe a ramen bowl...

"Naruto." Jiraiya had been quiet for a long while, but spoke now. The boy looked away from Kakashi.

"Yeah?"

"Here." The Sannin handed over a bulging frog wallet. "Go and organise a room for the three of us. We'll be up shortly."

"Eh!" Naruto was incensed. "Why are you giving me my own wallet to pay with?"

Jiraiya waved it off. "Do you want to stay in respectable inns like this? If you do, pay yourself. Otherwise..." he trailed off and winked.

Naruto scowled and snatched the wallet, getting to his feet and dragging the packs out from under the table. "Stupid Ero-Sennin," he muttered, giving Kakashi one last worried look before crossing to the waitress and asking to settle the bill. Kakashi watched her name some ridiculously low amount and blush prettily, telling Naruto the tea was on the house.

"Really?" The boy grinned. "Thanks! Also, I need a room for myself and my two sensei." He glanced back over. "I think they're both drunk."

"Ah." The girl nodded and led Naruto out of the room. "This way."

_Drunk?_ Kakashi was insulted. He was most definitely not drunk. A ninja, sure, but drunk? He laughed.

"What's so funny?" Jiraiya was giving him a piercing look.

Kakashi shrugged. "Nothing, I guess. Just...Naruto said I was drunk."

The look turned sympathetic. "You don't drink much, huh?"

Kakashi shook his head and winced. Why was the room moving? Were they caught in a jutsu? "Last time was about...uh...five years ago, now?"

The Sannin took a sip from his own bowl. "That was around the time the last Uchiha joined Orochimaru, wasn't it?"

Yeah. But he'd been drunk since then, hadn't he? "Ah. Maybe it was two years ago, then."

Jiraiya looked thoughtful. "That was when the body switch occurred." He took another sip. "For someone who always hides his face and feelings, you're surprisingly sensitive, Kakashi."

Kakashi reached up to touch his face, but succeeded only in slapping himself. "I'm not hiding my face now."

"True," the older man agreed. "Why did you take off your mask?"

"I was injured," he replied, managing to rub his forehead. His head was pounding slightly and he wondered why. "Sakura had to cut through the clothes on my upper body to treat the wound."

Jiraiya nodded. "I see."

"And then we thought it would be safer having it off, since it was like, my thing," he continued, flapping his hand. "And it felt nice."

"To have the wind on your face for once?" the Sannin asked flippantly.

Kakashi shook his head and felt his brain slosh around inside his skull. "Ugh. No. To have someone see me as myself, for once."

"Ah." Jiraiya's tone was shrewd. "You seem to have taken this separation very hard. Sakura-chan has been taught by the Slug Queen herself; I don't think you have any reason to fear for her safety."

"I know that," Kakashi hissed. "She's strong, I've always known that. But I want to be there for her, beside her. I want...her..." He trailed off. What was he saying?

"Are you saying you love her?" There was nothing in Jiraiya's tone to indicate his thoughts. No compassion, no incredulity, but best of all, no judgment.

"...yes," Kakashi whispered, almost to himself.

"Sorry?" Jiraiya leaned forward, cupping his ear. "I didn't quite catch that."

"I love her," he said more clearly, before the room spun and tilted and sweet unconsciousness embraced him before his head could hit the table.

----

When he woke the next time Kakashi almost wished the _Kamikaze no Jutsu _had worked, because he felt like death had claimed him only to spit him back, beaten and bruised. His mouth tasted like he'd been chewing on one of his old sandals and his throat felt like he'd gone on to swallow it; his eyelids felt like they weighed a kilogram and he wasn't looking forward to getting up.

"Are you awake, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said, very loudly and _very_ close to his ear.

"No," he croaked, and felt like crying. Why did he drink? Everything from last night had turned into a blur and he couldn't remember even finishing the tale of what they'd done in the last three months.

"The Ero-Sennin is checking us out of the inn now," Naruto continued, cheerfully oblivious to Kakashi's fragile state. "So he said you have to be up and out the door in five minutes."

_Five minutes? _Kakashi was fairly sure he'd need about five _hours_ to get his arse into gear. Or maybe longer.

"Ugh," he said noncomittally, and willed the boy away.

"And we'll need you to show us on the map where that Ontou place is." Naruto was undeterred. "We can't see it, and we want to get a move on as soon as possible."

Kakashi froze. "Ontou?"

"Yeah, that's the village, right? Where Sakura-chan was? Aren't we gonna go and get her?"

Kakashi sat up, his eyes open. The room tilted dangerously but he ignored it, and clamped down on the bile tickling his throat. "We are," he said, nodding at Naruto.

Five minutes, Jiraiya gave him. They were out the door in two.

----

Kakashi sipped gratefully from a waterskin as he pointed at a map of the Earth country. "No, further above Iwa, and to the east of this river here. I'm fairly certain that's where we'll find it."

Jiraiya gauged the distance. "Well, we're here." He indicated a section in the Waterfall country. "It's going to take about five days to make the journey to the village, but it's the only thing we can do until you get some sign from that dog of yours, right?"

He nodded. "Until Pakkun sends notice, I can't think of a better alternative. At least we'll be closer to the last place we _know_ Sakura was. Anything else is guesswork and I'd prefer to stick with facts for something like this."

Beside him, Naruto shifted impatiently from foot to foot. "Have we sorted this out yet? I want to start moving now."

Kakashi smiled at him. The boy's enthusiasm was infectious, and a slow buildup of anticipation was growing in his chest. "Yeah, Naruto. I think we're ready to get this show on the road."

Jiraiya gave a throaty chuckle. "Yes, let's start. As I like to say, the sooner we leave, the sooner we get there."

They jumped up onto nearby branches and pushed forward as one, Naruto giving the Sannin a tired glare. "I really wish you actually used all those stupid sayings, instead of just remembering them and bringing them out at random moments."

The Sannin laughed again and this time Kakashi joined him. It felt good to be proactive. He was doing something now, and already the chasm between him and Sakura seemed to be that much smaller.

----

Jiraiya had been spot on with his prediction of five days, and they reached the outskirts of Ontou on the afternoon of the fifth.

"This is it," Kakashi said as they dropped onto their respective branches and paused in their flight. He indicated the village below them. "I don't think we should go through the town proper; it might be best if we just go around it and check out Izanami's house for some sign of Sakura."

The other two nodded.

"Right," said Naruto. "So are those enemy-nin based around here? Since they ambushed you close by and that Yumi-woman knew about Izanami."

Kakashi frowned. He'd wondered that also but had found it more logical that they'd just come from Sound, as it was as close to Ontou as Sand was to Konoha. "I don't know, Naruto," he said. "I never got the chance to ask."

"Lead on," said Jiraiya. "These tired old legs of mine want a rest, and I can't see them getting one until we find Sakura-chan."

They pushed off again and Kakashi took them the long way round, dropping down onto the garden at Izanami's place right at the back of the property.

Naruto landed beside him and stumbled, a confused expression on his face.

"What is it, Naruto?"

"I smell..." The expression changed and he was off, pushing through the ferns and disappearing into the brush.

"Wait!" Kakashi called, but the boy was out of sight in an instant. "What was that about?" he asked, frowning as the Sannin dropped down also.

Jiraiya sighed and rubbed his head. "It's strange," he admitted. "It's been happening in fits and bursts since his puberty, but in this last year it seems to have kicked in permanently. Naruto...he can sense a specific person's chakra. It's not like the heightened awareness you or I would use; he seems to liken it to 'smelling' them, but I can't be sure if it's an olfactory response or a metaphysical one. I'm also not certain as to whether it was Naruto himself or the Kyuubi who initiated this development, but regardless, it's quite an unusual skill."

"So we could have followed Sakura's scent directly?" Kakashi was miffed. Had they just wasted nearly a week?

"No," Jiraiya replied. "It's not a long distance thing yet. He needs to be near the person or have an actual track to follow. I would have suggested we used this ability, otherwise."

Kakashi looked away. Of course. How foolish of him to doubt the Sannin. "Ah," he said. "Let's follow him, shall we?"

They made their way through the bushes and travelled for some time, eventually finding Naruto crouched near some recently turned dirt, eyes closed and one hand on the ground beside a battered looking kunai. "She was here," he said, without opening his eyes. "Ten days ago at most. She was here, and she was crying, but she was alive, and," he opened his eyes and pointed to the east, "she went that way."

"You can sense her?" Kakashi asked, his heart in his throat.

Naruto shrugged, at a loss. "I'm not sure. I just...know these things. I don't know where she is right now, but..."

Kakashi's arm tingled. He fumbled with his sleeve and tried to roll it up; when it stuck at his elbow he grunted and ripped it clean from the shirt. The ANBU tattoo stood out in stark relief against the pale skin of his bicep and he tensed as the scarlet symbol flashed then faded, changing colour to a pale, throbbing blue.

"What is _that?_" asked Naruto, his voice unnaturally high.

"_That's_ a message," Kakashi said, a fierce smile lighting his features. "You may not know where Sakura is, Naruto, but Pakkun does. _He's found her_."

-----------------------

-------------

----

Notes

_hiden_: a jutsu passed down through a family or group, like the Naras' _Kagemane no Jutsu_ or the Yamanakas' _Shintenshin no Jutsu_. (Shikaino equals love!)

This chapter had a few things in it that are worth mentioning. _Shougi_ is a game of Japanese chess played with 20 pieces per player on a 9x9 tiled board. Each piece is the same shape and they have kanji characters on them that say what they are. A _hashi_ is the equivalent piece to a rook in chess; it's a castle of sorts and can move in a cross shape, any number of squares right or left, or up and down.

A _henohenomoheji_ is the face symbol you see on Pakkun's coat. As Sakumo explained to Kakashi, the face itself is made up of hiragana characters and the names for each character make up the name of the symbol. It really is used for the faces of scarecrows in Japan, and as most of you will know already the word "kakashi" means scarecrow in Japanese, perhaps a play by Kishimoto on the jounin's wild hair. :)

There is no jutsu like the one I made that connects Pakkun and Kakashi, I invented it for convenience in this story otherwise I would have never been able to reintroduce Naruto and Jiraiya at my leisure; Kakashi would be all, "MUST SAVE SAKURA" and it would have been most unfortunate for all involved, since he'd have no help and the other two would still be off wandering in some random country somewhere. And we most certainly could _not_ have that, because I love both of them very very much.

Someone mentioned that they thought the Pakkun that found Sakura at the end of chapter 12 was a fake, and I just wanted to clarify that he's actually the real deal and chapter 13 and 14 happen during the time covered in 12. Sorry if I've confused anyone, but it was important to have Sakura's reaction first and then play catchup with Kakashi because there would have been no point in her thoughts about Kakashi's death if I'd already reassured everyone that he was actually fine. Events are basically happening at the same time now; you'll see in 15 where they seam together.

Thanks as usual to DS, Molly, Candice and everyone who inspires and helps me and keeps me on track even though I have five fics going at once (cries), and also to everyone who reads and those who leave a review. I think chapter 13 got the most long/detailed reviews, and it was a pleasant surprise to hear from people who'd just stumbled on the fic, and those who'd lurked for a while before deciding to let me know what they thought. Please keep reading, and I love to hear your take on where the story is heading. Till next week!


	15. Reunion

Chapter fifteen  
Reunion

----

Sakura wasn't sure how long she sat, staring unbelievingly at Pakkun, but it must have been a fair while because he grew impatient and sneezed with annoyance.

"I assume you haven't had much opportunity for conversation recently, but in polite society it's customary to greet someone when you run into them."

She swallowed, and kept staring. "I-Is that you, Pakkun?"

The dog scowled and got up on all fours, padding across her ribcage and placing a paw on either side of her neck. "What does it look like?" he said, face very close to her own. She blinked and thought she caught a hint of mushrooms on the whiff of his breath.

She reached up and put her hands on his shoulders, hooking her thumbs below his forelegs before sitting up slowly and placing the pug in front of her. She surveyed him in amazement as she crossed her legs. "I was dreaming," she said, and he whuffed, derision clear in his regard.

"While I'm obviously flattered, I think it would be highly irregular for you to be dreaming about _me_."

He almost had a point. She smiled sadly and felt her lips crack at the gesture. For a dream, it was a rather sensory one. Why couldn't it have been about something - some_one_ - else? "I guess my subconscious is just feeding me the memories I have of him," she murmured. "And you must be linked to him in my head."

"Him?" Pakkun asked, tilting his head to give her a curious stare. "You mean Kakashi?"

She sniffled. _Dammit!_ She'd promised herself there would be no more crying. She was sick of crying, and of course she hadn't packed a handkerchief. How foolish of her to have left on a mission without anticipating she'd be crying for a great chunk of it. "Yes," she replied, lifting the flap of her skirt to wipe her runny nose.

"I'm certainly glad you wear undershorts," Pakkun remarked waspishly. "That was particularly unladylike."

"Why am I dreaming about you lecturing me?" Sakura asked, a flash of irritation stabbing through the familiar grief. This was rather unusual, but she had to admit it was almost a welcome change compared to her regular nighttime remembrances.

Pakkun sighed. "I've already told you this isn't a dream. I have no intention of repeating myself all afternoon, so if there's some way I can prove this to you and hasten your recovery, please let me know now, before we waste more time."

She blinked. "How could there be any proof this _isn't_ a dream? I really don't know why I have to explain this, but I guess it's pretty simple. You can't be here, because you're Kakashi's summon. Kakashi can't summon you, because he's...he's..."

"Dead?" Pakkun supplied helpfully.

She stiffened at his almost curious frankness, but nodded after a moment, tears welling up and sliding down the track marks she assumed were etched into her face by now.

"Yes," she whispered. "He's dead."

The dog looked thoughtful. "Well, I can see how you would have assumed that. It didn't occur to me until now that that's what you'd be thinking, and I'm not sure if he's considered it either. But yes," he continued, almost to himself, "I can see that now."

He glanced over at her and his dark eyes seemed to soften a bit, lending his droopy face a bit of compassion. "This past week must have been very trying for you."

"Eight days," she corrected automatically, her mind whizzing over his strange, unsettling words. "But what do you mean, something he hadn't considered? What are you talking about?"

He coughed slightly and stared up at her, features set. "You seemed convinced this is a dream, but who's to say it's not? Did you see Kakashi's body, Sakura? Did you find his corpse anywhere after he opened the scroll?"

She looked away. Hadn't she only just been despairing at her lack of closure, that the absence of a body afforded her no release from her grief?

"No," she replied carefully. "No, there was no body."

Pakkun nodded. "Then listen to me with an open mind, and believe me when I tell you that not only are both Kakashi and the boring-man alive and well, but my esteemed master has sent me out to track you down. As soon as I find you - which, I suppose, is now - I'm meant to send the signal and direct him to where you ended up. He'll follow as quickly as he's able."

She sat and processed. Something was touching her thigh and she glanced down to see her hand pressed on top of it, trembling uncontrollably. She brought the hand up and pressed it hard against her chest, leaning over her body in an attempt to stop the shaking.

"He's really alive?" she asked him, voice cracking painfully in mingled excitement and fear. She wanted to believe the dog, wanted to trust his words but she was so afraid of letting herself hope again. She'd opened her heart only to have it bruised and battered, and if events betrayed her one more time she thought she might be broken forever.

"Oh, for goodness sake," said Pakkun irritably, before standing up and crossing to her, and sinking his teeth into her leg.

----

"You didn't have to bite me that hard, you know," Sakura told him later, after he'd brought her up to date with what had happened to Kakashi and Akio in the time they'd been away. She poured water onto a strip of gauze and dabbed at the wound his sharp little teeth had left on her thigh.

"Yes, I did," he replied, sunning himself on a rock beside her. "You wouldn't have believed me unless there was a lot of pain involved."

"Would too," she countered, flicking some water at him.

He snuffled and shook his head, sneezing at the water. "Would not."

She gave a short bark of laughter and wondered why it felt so good. _Oh, that's right. Kakashi is _alive. They'd all survived. He wasn't dead. He hadn't left her alone in the world. He was alive and he was safe and he was coming -

Her laughter stopped and she frowned down at the dog. "Didn't you say you had to contact him, somehow?"

"Ah, yes." Pakkun stood up and shook himself. "I'd quite forgotten, what with all that convincing I had to do." He gave her a pointed look but she brought her hands up, affronted.

"What did you expect? I've just spent the last eight days trapped in my own misery, thinking he was dead! Then you appear out of nowhere - while I was, incidentally, dreaming - and try to tell me that it was all a big trick, and actually everything is a-okay?"

His face turned sly. "You seem to have taken this rather hard, you know. You're a shinobi. The luxury of emotion is one you can ill afford in this tumultuous time. Why were you so affected by Kakashi's death?"

She looked away, feeling the heat of a blush travel across her cheeks. "I - nothing. I mean, no reason. He's my teacher, of course. I've known him for five years and..." she trailed off. And what? What had she decided when she was all alone? "And I care for him," she finished off carefully.

"Right," Pakkun replied. "You care for him. Like a daughter, perhaps?"

"Hardly!" she returned, scandalised. "He's nothing like a father to me."

Somehow the dog managed to raise an eyebrow.

"I mean," she tacked on hastily, feeling like control of the conversation was running away from her, "he's...er...not old enough to be my father. And I have a father. Of course I do. I don't need another one."

She bit her lip and wondered what she'd say if the dog challenged her again. These strange and delicate feelings were still too new to share with anyone, least of all a creature of Kakashi's own. She'd only become aware of them when she thought there was no hope. Now some hope had appeared to her, in the form of this irascible, surly pug, and she still wasn't sure what to make of it all. How could she put what she felt into words?

Fortunately, Pakkun appeared to have satisfied his curiosity for the time being and didn't ask any further questions. He rose to all fours and craned his neck behind him as if to bite his own neck. He couldn't get around as far as he needed to, and Sakura forgot enough of her discomfort to ask him hesitantly what he was doing.

He dropped his head and frowned. "I was trying to check that the henohenomaheji was clean and centred."

She blinked. "The what now?" The name tickled a memory at the back of her mind, but she couldn't remember where she'd heard it before.

"The face on my back. Is it dirty or wrinkled?"

She moved behind him and tugged the little vest down, smoothing it against his back. The black lines of the face were clear against the white background, and she couldn't see any blemishes at all. "You're looking good," she told him, giving him one last pat before sitting back down.

"Always do." He grinned at her. She rolled her eyes at him but found herself grinning back, filled with a kind of dizzying excitement at being in the presence of someone else again. The fact that her companion was a talking dog didn't bother her in the slightest. Pakkun was smart, resourceful, and he'd brought her a bit of hope.

He was also doing something really, really weird.

Sakura stared as he bowed his head and tensed, each leg stretched outward and stiff. His back curved up to a point where his tail poked upright and bristled. If his eyes hadn't drifted shut she would have thought him about to attack someone. The lines of his body fairly screamed taut strength and power, and she wondered what he was channeling, and how. And then she stopped wondering and gasped instead, because the strange picture on the back of his vest had ceased to be just plain white and black, and was now pulsating a gentle, glowing blue.

"What have you done?" she whispered in awe.

Pakkun yawned and sat, his back still shining, throwing the clearing into relief. "What I had to." He shrugged. "Ive just contacted Kakashi. He'll be here as soon as he's able."

----

Naruto stared at him for a moment before his eyes slid down to the glowing ANBU tattoo, a pale beacon, stark against his arm. "He's found her?" the boy echoed, brow creasing in confusion.

"Yes." Kakashi fought to keep his stance loose and tone normal. His muscles were straining in anticipation and a voice inside was complaining loudly at the delay. _Hurry up! _the voice commanded. _We're wasting time!_

Jiraiya shifted and seemed also to be eyeing Kakashi's arm with something like respect. "How very impressive," he remarked, white eyebrows raised. "A communications jutsu. Where is the dog's symbol?"

"On his coat." There'd be time for them to be impressed later - they had more pressing concerns at present. "He's to the east; let's get going."

Naruto visibly filed away his interest for later and then stood, brushing the dirt from his knees. He smiled suddenly, a feral baring of teeth revealing pointed incisors. "To Sakura-chan!"

Jiraiya sighed and adjusted his pack. "I guess we're off again."

Kakashi felt the insistent throbbing in his arm relax to a regular, gentle pulsing that steered him irrevocably to the east.

"Yes," he said, turning in that direction and feeling an insistent tug from behind his navel. "Let's go."

He felt rather than saw the other two exchange glances, but if they had reservations, for once he didn't care. He knew what he was doing. He had to. There'd be no more second-guessing in this endeavour, not any more.

He tensed and shimmered, reappearing in a tree above where he'd been standing. He looked down at them and smiled humourlessly, studiously ignoring the freshly turned earth. He had a fair idea of what was under there, and it was up to him to make sure no more graves needed to be dug. "Let's go," he said for a third time, and finally they obliged, moving up to join him before bounding off into the sunset.

----

Sakura sighed and blew an errant strand of hair from her eyes. It was a losing battle since most of her hair hung over her face, positioned as she was in a handstand in the middle of the clearing.

It had been three days since Pakkun had found her, and there was still no sign of Kakashi. She'd spent the first evening on a kind of giddy high, shaky with anticipation at how their reunion would play out. She imagined it would go something like: Pakkun would tell her Kakashi was coming and she'd run out to meet him. She'd smile brightly so that he'd never know how affected she'd been by his apparent death. He, in turn, would be happy to see her safe and sound, and they might even hug, embrace chastely, making Sakura equal to that hateful Yumi in terms of physical intimacy.

That still really made her mad.

She'd had plenty of time to imagine the meeting, because he hadn't shown up that evening, or the day that followed. It was unsurprising, really. She shouldn't have expected he'd appear immediately, but she'd wanted to see him so badly that it hadn't occurred to her - despite Pakkun's explanation - that Kakashi would need to make his way from where he'd landed to where she had come to be. _And I didn't make it any easier for him_, she thought ruefully, remembering her thoughtless flight off into the woods. She'd wanted distance, needed to get away from Izanami's house, but she'd done them both a disservice and prolonged the wait until they would see each other again. _But, I couldn't have known_, she reasoned. _And we won't be waiting much longer..._

"Are you _sure_ we wouldn't make things easier by moving back towards Ontou?" she asked Pakkun doubtfully.

The dog shook his head and she felt queasy, looking at the motion from her upside-down perspective. "There's no point," he said, resting his head on his paws. The symbol on his back still glowed and she closed her eyes to keep her balance. "What if we crossed paths unknowingly along the way? I've said this every time you've asked me, Sakura, and I still think it's a bad idea."

She nodded and nearly fell over. "Ow. You make a good point."

"I always do," the dog replied, stifling a yawn.

Deciding she'd had enough, Sakura flipped back upright, swaying for a moment as the blood rushed back through her body and the world righted itself around her. She crossed to her pack, lying next to the dog, and withdrew her waterskin, dribbling a small amount onto her palm and then patting it over her face.

Pakkun regarded her critically. "Was it really necessary to spend the last four hours on your hands?"

She frowned down at him. "Well, no. But what else could I do? You said we shouldn't change locations and I'm bored out of my brain by all this waiting. Unless you can suggest something more worthwhile to occupy my time?"

"Perhaps you could take a bath," Pakkun suggested, wrinkling his nose pointedly. "Seems like you've been travelling hard."

She flushed at the subtle insinuation, but after giving herself a discreet sniff, found she couldn't argue with the pug. Had she washed more than her face, since leaving Izanami's? She thought she might have, but if so, when? It must have been days since her last wash. Pakkun deserved a medal for putting up with her stench as well as the tactful way he'd made her aware of the fact. Her flush deepened. It was fortunate after all that Kakashi hadn't found them yet. How potentially embarrassing.

She nodded stiffly and retrieved her toiletries, along with a grubby towel and a change of clothes. There wasn't much to pick from, but for once she didn't care what she looked like. It was more important, she decided, to _not_ smell like a racehorse.

"You remember where the stream is?" Pakkun asked lazily. She had to flush again because she'd been to the stream twice to fill up the waterskins and rinse the pot, and yet neither occasion had prompted a personal hygiene epiphany. _I was distracted_, she excused herself mentally. _I was so relieved that Kakashi was alive and well that other things just slipped my mind._ Inner Sakura held her nose and waved at the air in front of her. _Shut up, you_, Sakura told her, before scowling at Pakkun.

"Yes, I remember."

"Just wondering." The dog nodded, then closed his eyes, settling down for a nap. "Don't get lost, now."

Sakura gave him a very rude gesture before stomping out of the clearing. His low chuckle drifted out after her and didn't help things at all.

----

The pulsing in his arm was more frequent now, and he could tell they were close even without Naruto scratching at his nose every ten minutes.

"You can smell her?" Kakashi called out, not wanting to drop the pace for conversation.

Naruto gave him a searching look, but then nodded. "She's nearby," he said grimly. "Pakkun's scent is around here as well."

The call was...insistent. He could hardly sleep while it was activated and had volunteered to keep watch, an unnecessary gesture since Jiraiya had Sannin-senses and Naruto could apparently smell an enemy coming. Neither argued, however, and Jiraiya gave him a tight but understanding smile.

"Do what you have to do," he told Kakashi, before rolling himself up in a blanket and promptly dropping off to sleep.

Naruto followed him into slumber after giving Kakashi another unreadable look, but they'd been running hard and the boy was soon out like a light.

Kakashi watched them sleep, and used the time to think.

The second day passed much the same as the first. When evening came he wished he could have caught a few snatches of rest the night before, because being this close to the symbol made his arm beat every other second. Exhaustion dulled his senses and he finally drifted off for what felt like only a moment, and he was once again awake before dawn, watching the sun rise with gritty determination to find Sakura before another morning passed.

He felt like a bastard for shaking the other two awake soon after the sun touched their campsite on the third day, but his arm held a violent drumbeat and he wanted to get there as soon as he could. They were close and it angered him, because there were _only_ close, and not there already.

Naruto rubbed his eyes but rolled out of his blankets without complaint. Jiraiya gave one of those smiles that said everything despite being empty.

"My arm -" Kakashi started, almost defensively, but Jiraiya interrupted.

"I know."

His smile widened but Kakashi dismissed it. Whatever the Sannin thought he knew was just that - a thought. The depth of his feelings for Sakura was something he had kept to himself and had chosen not to divulge to Jiraiya or Naruto. Admittedly, the former probably wouldn't care, but the latter...

There was no point in thinking about it. His emotions were private and he'd promised himself not to burden even Sakura with their weight.

Yes, there was definitely no point in thinking about it. He pressed on with new vigour and left it to the others to catch up.

----

The stream was deep and inviting and Sakura hoped she never had another period in her life that completely overshadowed her innate desire to bathe. There was something about being able to take off dirty clothes and immerse oneself fully in cool, rinsing water, and she relished the sensation of liquid against skin.

She waded out into the middle, pleasantly surprised to find the bottom so deep she couldn't touch it with her toes. There was something - had always been something - that was dangerously alluring about being isolated in water. It was the only time she really enjoyed being out of her depth.

She closed her eyes and dunked her head under the water, giving herself up to the gentle tug of the current and how it felt against her body. She brought her hands up and rubbed vigorously against her skull, running her fingertips through her knotted tresses in an attempt to make order of her hair.

It didn't work. She needed a comb.

Rising to the surface, she opened her eyes and kicked up, bringing her feet to the top and floating aimlessly for a couple of minutes. It felt good - no, it felt _wonderful_ - to be free and unfettered like this, at one with the water and warmed by the gentle rays of the afternoon sun. Eventually, she swam back to her things and grabbed the soap and comb, before going back to the deep part and actually washing herself this time.

The soap was an abrasive linseed blend that produced minimum suds for a maximum clean. It was a hard product, one she disliked immensely, but there was no point in pretty soaps with sweet scents, not for a ninja. Shinobi bath items were practical ones and this one cleaned blood from skin efficiently, an advantage she couldn't really deny.

She lathered it over her head and tore ruthlessly through the tangles with the stiff comb, ignoring the tears that welled up at the action. She'd always been sensitive about brushing and the like, to the extent that her mother had refused to brush her hair due to the crying. Years ago she'd taken Sakura to the hairdresser and had it all cut off, and it wasn't until Sakura had learned a certain boy liked girls with long hair that she'd amassed the fortitutde to withstand much brushing. Her hair now, however, seemed filthy, and she watched in amazement as dark water sluiced down her shoulders and arms before running back into the stream. _Yuck!_ She'd never been that dirty before. Unless -

Her thoughts were cut short at a noise behind her, and she whirled in the water, dropping both items as her hands came up protectively to cross her chest. She sunk down up to her chin and glanced around worriedly to see where the dislodging of what sounded like a stone had occurred.

There was no one. Or was there? A flash of dark hair and then the barest ripple on the water, and then all of Sakura's reunion conversations were forgotten, because there, in front of her, stood one very alive Hatake Kakashi.

She stared. She was suddenly glad all the premeditated scenarios had flown her mind because she couldn't have recited them even if she'd wanted to. Her vision faded in and out. All the moisture had gone from her mouth and it was entirely possible that her throat wouldn't work at all.

"Sakura."

Kakashi seemed as shocked as she was. All the colour had leeched from his face and he actually stumbled a little, his toes sinking down into the water before he gathered enough chakra to go back to where he'd been, positioned lightly on top. He returned her gaze for what felt like hours before catching himself and glancing around quickly, behind him and to the side. "Looks like I got here first," he murmured, but the sound travelled easily across the water.

She drank up his voice like the sweetest of drinks and paddled forward, still staring at his pale, beloved face. The face that had haunted every moment of her existence since that terrible day. "I thought I'd never see you again," she whispered brokenly, the words pushing through her dry throat with a rasp.

"I know," he said, and while his tone was tender, the shifting of the trees threw shadows across his face.

Sakura was still too shocked to notice anything besides the fact that he was alive and he was here and he was with her right now. "You're alive," she said, more strongly now, and his laugh was rueful and joyous all in one.

"I am," he agreed, before crossing the distance between them and releasing the chakra that kept him afloat.

She blinked as he dropped into the water, droplets splashing everywhere and obscuring her vision for a moment. When he resurfaced, she reached out, pressing her shaking fingers against the plane of his cheek. Brown strands of hair slipped over his forehead and she smoothed them away, feeling warmth pricking at the corners of her eyes at the overwhelming sensation of skin against skin.

"You're alive," she said again, and he gave another low laugh, reaching out to encircle her, the sodden sleeves of his shirt sticking to her bare back.

"Yes," he replied, and almost before she knew what she was doing, before she could rationalise the rights and wrongs of her action, she leaned close into his water-cooled body and pressed her trembling lips against his own.

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This chapter originally had an extra paragraph on the end, but due to the important announcement (wah, that sounds so pompous) I'm about to make, I thought everyone would appreciate a not-cliffhanger over the next month.

Yes, that's right. Despite having promised myself and most likely other people that I wouldn't take another break, things have become dire in regards to this story. I'm currently almost halfway through writing chapter 18, but things aren't flowing. I'm very very afraid that I'm going to fall behind very very soon, so I'm taking a month off this time in the hopes of wrapping TS up. I've anticipated 24 chapters in total, and now that I can see the end in sight, I want to be able to concentrate on finishing it. This is my own fault for giving myself a weekly update schedule, and all I can do is apologise for the delay, but I'm also hoping that once the month is up and I've completed the fic, I'll be able to post every 2/3 days until all chapters are up. Surely that will be good. Surely?

I have a complete, five chapter Narusaku WAFF fic that I'll be posting in the interim. Many of you will probably be adverse to the pairing, and that's fine, but I like it and I feel better when I'm at least posting something, so if you get author alerts that's what they'll be for.

Thanks as always to my stable of betas and everyone who reads and reviews. I hope this chapter ending hasn't been too traumatic for you, and a few sharp-eyed readers might be getting cookies if they pick up on what I hope they do. I appreciate everyone's understanding and patience, and hope you stick with the story till the end. :)


	16. Deception

Chapter sixteen  
Deception

----

Sakura felt Kakashi freeze at the touch of her mouth, but he endured the kiss almost stoically and after a moment she had to draw back. There was a twist to his lips, a look of sardonic amusement, and she felt suddenly cheated and not a little embarrassed. Those long days of wallowing in self-pity, the sleepless nights of wishes and abortive fantasies - this is what they'd all come down to. A single, dream-shattering kiss. A gesture that looked like it hadn't been wanted in the first place, as it certainly hadn't been reciprocated.

"I'm sorry," she said stiffly, trying to move out of his embrace. "I don't know what came over me, please forget this ever happened."

His arms stayed firm around her and he gave a low laugh, the sound flowing out and around her like the water keeping them afloat. "No, I'm sorry, Sakura," he said, bringing a hand up to stroke at her damp hair. "You took me by surprise, that's all. I wasn't expecting you to...show initiative like that."

There was something in his tone she couldn't quite identify, but for some reason it sent chills down her spine. _No_, she told herself, _I'm imagining things. And the water is cold and I'm nak-_

She repressed a shriek, letting out a stifled gurgle instead. He glanced down, concerned by the odd noise. "What's wrong?" he asked quickly, his eyes flicking past her, looking almost hunted.

"I - bath - no clothes -" she managed, before he laughed and released her, turning his back.

"Ah, of course. Go and get dressed. We'll have plenty of time to talk when you're finished." This time his voice held a note of low promise and she shivered again, crossing to the shore with brisk, fluid strokes. She grabbed the bundle of clothing, along with her discarded weapons pouch, and then raced behind a tree to towel herself off in record time. She donned the patched pants and loose shirt he'd bought for her in Ontou and leaned over, about to dry her hair when she felt hands come to rest on her own and take the towel from her head.

"Let me," he said, and she obliged, dropping her arms and leaning into him as he scraped the cloth across her hair in smooth, practiced motions. He rubbed gently for some time before speaking again. "Sakura."

She started. Her eyes had drifted shut under his ministrations and she mentally slapped herself. This wasn't going at all how she'd planned. She'd been briefed somewhat by Pakkun on what had happened after they'd opened the scroll, but she hadn't asked Kakashi about it yet. Maybe he'd think she didn't care what had happened to him. Maybe he'd misinterpreted that kiss before, hadn't read it as she'd meant him to, hadn't seen it as a declaration of sorts -

"Sakura?"

She coughed. "Uh, yes?" She could call herself names later. For now she needed to pay attention to what Kakashi was saying.

"I said, are you alone?"

She opened her mouth to reply then snapped it shut as something terrible occurred to her. Something terrible and awful and so bloody obvious she should have thought of it right from the beginning.

_Oh, play me for the fool again._

"Yes," she whispered, the words almost lost underneath the towel. His large hands stopped their circular movements and she reached up, brushing past them to grasp the fabric and slip it from her head. She straightened from her hunched position and let the towel drop to the ground between them, crumpling on the river stones, a neutral strip of white cloth.

He watched it fall before looking up at her, a question etched in triumph visible on his face. "Not any more," he promised, but it was a parody of a vow and her chest ached at the words. She made herself smile, acted once more for her unsuspecting audience of one.

"No," she said, stepping forward, placing both feet deliberately on the towel like a door mat. "Not any more."

She held out her hands and this time he stepped into her embrace, resting his chin on her forehead with a satisfied sigh. "We've had some troubles, but at last everything is as it should be," he told her, arms draping themselves loosely around her shoulders.

"Yes," she agreed, sliding out a leg and toeing open her hip pack where it lay on the shore next to her towel. "Everything is _just_ how it should be."

She grabbed the handle of a kunai between her big and second toe, flicking it up into the air with a gentle, sweeping kick. Then she caught it, letting it drop into her ready, waiting hand, before she closed her eyes and drove the point into the side of Kakashi's neck.

----

Kakashi's nose tickled and he let out an abrupt sneeze, losing momentum on one of his jumps. The pause let Naruto catch up to him, and as the boy adjusted his leaps to match the pace he also broke their travel silence, startling Kakashi from his reverie.

"Someone talking about you?" The question was casual but Naruto's face was set in hard lines, and the absence of cheeriness was a stark contrast to his usual persona.

Kakashi found himself glancing away. He'd always known the boy was a lot more perceptive than he let on. Naruto wielded his apparent obtuseness like a weapon, and he'd hardly be the Number One Surprising Ninja if people actually _expected_ intelligence from him. Stupidity was in the eye of the beholder and sometimes alleged genius was more a hindrance than a help. He touched his eye patch reflexively and took another moment before answering.

"That may be so."

Naruto nodded, that same hard look on his face. "I wonder if it's Sakura-chan and Pakkun. Talking about you, I mean."

Kakashi grimaced. The boy wasn't obtuse, but he wasn't too familiar with subtlety, either.

"Possibly," he replied carefully. "Pakkun can feel the connection as I can, and my arm is nearly burning from the proximity."

It was true. The closer they got to the symbol, Pakkun, and of course, _Sakura_, the more his arm throbbed and tingled. The pulses had become so frequent he couldn't determine a pause between them any longer, and the tattoo had settled into a buzzing sensation he couldn't put far from his mind.

Naruto didn't speak for a long while, flipping over on the next branch and travelling upside down for some time. Kakashi had begun to relax, thinking he'd misinterpreted and the boy was just curious, when he was proven wrong again.

"What if," Naruto began, so quietly Kakashi had to strain his ears to hear it, "what if I said Asuma-sensei and Ino went away on a mission together and decided they cared about each other in the time they were away? Not just cared, but...loved, maybe?"

He paused to swallow and Kakashi closed his eyes.

"It wouldn't work, would it?" Naruto's voice was almost pleading. "He's almost twice her age, right? And he was her teacher for so long, too. You'd have to think what her parents would say. And..." he trailed off, rubbing his nose angrily. Kakashi felt the boy's gaze on him, uncharacteristically bitter, yet imploring. "Do you see what I mean, Kakashi-_sensei_?"

He opened his eyes and sighed. "You're not a good liar, Naruto. Don't try to start now. One of your best -" _and worst_ "- features is your unrelenting honesty. If you have something to say to me, say it truthfully, not couched in hypotheticals." _And it's back to being the villain,_ he thought tiredly. _Looks like I'll never win._

Naruto rubbed his nose a bit more, then gave him a bleak look. "Does she feel the same?"

_Not obtuse, at all_.

"I have no idea."

Kakashi suddenly felt very old. Naruto's objections were valid ones, and he'd thought them through before. He'd sworn he wouldn't dwell on this, that it didn't matter whether Sakura returned his feelings or not. But now, Naruto had seen underneath the underneath...

_I'm obviously not as skilled at hiding my emotions as I thought I was. _

Although it certainly explained the boy's odd silence over the last few days. He braved a glance and Naruto returned it. They shared a moment of understanding, of uncertainty, and then Naruto's face softened slightly, that old, unnecessary faith returning to his eyes. A smile appeared, his first one in days, and even though it was wry and a little self-deprecating, it was a smile nonetheless.

"It must be the Sharingan," he joked almost painfully, and Kakashi could have cried at the boy's generosity and strength of spirit. "Girls just can't resist a bloodline limit."

He could have cried but he laughed instead, and he was still smiling when they came upon the clearing where Pakkun waited, alone.

----

"Took you long enough," the little dog remarked, when they dropped down to the forest floor and caught their breath.

"Sorry about the delay, I was holding everyone up." Jiraiya gave a throaty laugh and rummaged in his pack for a waterskin. He pulled it out and took a long swig before glancing around and raising an eyebrow. "Are we missing someone?"

Kakashi had noticed her absence immediately, as sharp and jolting as the severed connection from Pakkun. The moment they'd landed, only metres from the pug, the pulsing had stopped and it took a minute to adjust. The sensation had been a constant companion for the last few days, and its loss was very telling.

He ignored Jiraiya's offer of the waterskin and focussed instead on the pug. "Where is she?"

Naruto stepped forward, sniffing the air. "I can't sense her presence anywhere but here." He looked down at the dog, confusion evident on his face. "Sakura-chan..."

Pakkun laughed, a quick, hacking wheeze that he cut off guiltily, as quickly as it had begun. "While your powers of deduction are admirable, I regret to inform you I am _not_ Sakura."

"I didn't think you were!" the boy returned hotly, looking around to see if anyone else had suspected such a thing.

Kakashi hadn't glanced away from Pakkun. "Where is she?" he repeated. They hadn't crossed two borders and made their way here in a week only to be denied Sakura's presence.

Pakkun opened his mouth to answer. "She's -" He stopped, eyes widening. "Did you hear that?" he asked instead.

Kakashi did. He'd heard them before he'd sensed them, something he was _not_ prone to experiencing. At the farthest reach of his earshot came a scatter of shuffling, a flurry of puffing, like...

...like a horde of enemy-nin, appearing one after another, completely surrounding the clearing in which they stood.

"Well," Jiraiya said, after a moment. "Look's like we've got ourselves a welcome party."

"Some party," scoffed Naruto, cracking his knuckles.

Pakkun cleared his throat, a low rumble that got everyone's attention. "Kakashi, I'd just get in the way if I stick around for this. I'd prefer to take my leave, if you don't mind."

He nodded. "Sure, but -"

"Sakura," continued the dog, silencing him with a meaningful look, "is taking advantage of a nearby stream. She's having a bath," he clarified for Naruto, who was giving him a puzzled stare.

"_Oh_," said the boy. "She's in water, that's why I couldn't smell her."

"Believe me," said Pakkun dryly, getting off his haunches, "that's a _good_ thing." And on that rather cryptic note, he disappeared.

_I didn't even get a chance to thank him_, thought Kakashi, but his regret was fleeting in the face of Sakura's continued absence and the surrounding enemy-nin. He counted the chakra signatures and felt his mouth settle into a firm line. "Thirty," he said, and the other two nodded.

"We'd probably do better with a fourth," Jiraiya reflected, closing one eye and tapping his chin. "Think we can hold them off until Kakashi can get Sakura-chan, Naruto?"

The boy grinned, cheek markings growing more pronounced even as Kakashi watched. "We should be able to," he agreed nonchalantly, jagged teeth flashing.

"Well then, that's settled." Jiraiya gave Kakashi a devious look. "If you would be so kind?"

The enemy-nin crept closer. He wavered, uncertain of his priorities. He wanted to find Sakura, to reassure himself she was all right, but at the same time he felt bad about leaving these two to take care of things. "Are you sure you won't need me to even out the fight?"

Naruto turned and fixed him in his feral, scarlet gaze, answering in place of the Sannin. "It's already uneven, having only thirty against the two of us. Give them a chance, Kakashi-sensei. I always prefer a challenge, myself."

He still hesitated. "But fifteen on one -"

"Who said anything about one?" laughed Naruto, and with a quick handseal and a muttered jutsu, the clearing was filled with Kage Bunshin.

Jiraiya elbowed a couple of Narutos aside and glared at the real one. "We have to work on your understanding of personal space."

"Later," replied the boy, still with that dark, feral smile. "But now we've got some nin to pummel and Kakashi-sensei has to go and get Sakura."

Kakashi bristled. He was planning on doing that anyway; there was absolutely no need for the boy to give him orders.

"Back soon," was all he said, however. Naruto had matured, and acted selflessly, and it was the least Kakashi could do to repay him in kind.

The other two barely acknowledged his departure as he slipped out from the clearing, in search of the stream. He paused momentarily to trap two unsuspecting enemy-nin, but when they were safely ensconced in rock to the knees, he pressed onwards to where Sakura had gone.

----

Sakura couldn't watch his face, couldn't bear to see the betrayal writ there, regardless of how false the face had turned out to be. She stared instead at the blood spurting from the kunai wound, gazed at it as if entranced by the crimson flow that seemed like it would never stop. It spilled out across the handle and made a path along her right arm, pooling at her elbow before dripping soundlessly to the ground.

She'd busted an artery and cut clean through the windpipe, and she'd calculated the placement deliberately, stabbing directly at that particular spot. She didn't want to see the reaction and she couldn't bear to hear the words, either. With access to his larynx cut off, all he could manage was a rasping gurgle, and if she pretended hard enough, she could almost say it was a forest noise, a rustling on the wind.

Almost.

She had no idea how long she stood there, the kunai embedded in his neck up to the hilt, but it felt like hours before the skin under her hands rippled and bubbled just as Izanami's had done that fateful afternoon. The flesh darkened to a tan and her hands slipped on his shoulders as he lost height and shrunk, reverting back to the original form of the sacrifice. She finally looked up, giving the nin's corpse a perfunctory once-over before shoving it away from her in exhausted disgust. It toppled in slow motion, inching down to the stream, and then time returned to normal as it hit the water with a smacking splash.

He could keep the kunai. She didn't really want it back.

Walking numbly to her supplies, she took out the linseed soap again, crossing back to the water and lathering it up at the stream. She'd just been thinking about how the soap's main purpose was to wash off blood, and now look at her.

She scrubbed furiously at her skin, desisting only when her arms were pink and raw. She needed something physical, something tangible to rid herself - or at least, distract her from - the impotent fury that gripped her at the knowledge she'd been tricked by that _bitch_, _again_.

How many times? How many times would she have to go through the self-loathing and remorse that followed each deception? She'd wanted Kakashi's return so badly she had ignored her ninja senses and suspended her belief. The signs had been there right from the beginning of their little meeting but she'd acted impulsively and turned a blind eye. The _Shoten no Jutsu_ had claimed yet another victim and she only had herself to blame.

She stood and flicked the soap over to her clothing bundle, going back to where she'd let the corpse drop and giving it a more thorough inspection. He'd been young, perhaps a little older than herself, but unmarked aside from the crimson slash on the side of his neck. A hitai-ate was wrapped around one bicep and she bent to turn it over, to see the symbol etched upon it. She felt no surprise at finding the single note of the Sound engraved into the metal, and stared dully at the blood that had run down his arm and filled the grooves of the symbol. It was somewhat fitting, if not a little sad.

"Sakura?"

That voice again. She'd already heard it once today. Did Yumi think she was an idiot? She'd been fooled completely and it seemed ridiculous to try another one so soon after the last. Was it twice bitten, thrice shy? Or was it one less than that, and she was just incredibly slow?

"Kakashi." She said the name tiredly, perfunctorily, because she didn't have the energy to waste on the trick again. She'd seen the play and knew how it ended. This truly was too much.

"Sakura," he said again, and his voice was so low, so raw, that it cut her to the quick. Why? It wasn't fair that she had to endure this again. If anything, he sounded broken, weakened, and unbelieving, as well. _She_ wasn't the wraith, the deception. He wasn't allowed to sound so...so...

She looked up. He was a few paces away, standing awkwardly in the clearing as if unsure what to do. His body language was a study in uncertainty; he was tensed and brittle, but cowed as well. He looked so worried, so vulnerable that it hurt her to see him like this, another copy, albeit a more realistic one, one that acted just as Kakashi would if he felt as she did, frightened and alone.

They shared a glance, trapped in a moment, and then something snapped inside Sakura, something that she couldn't quite identify but hurt her nonetheless. And suddenly she was running towards him, crossing the distance between them, and then she was cocking back a fist to punch him as hard as she could.

----

Few things surprised the great Copy-nin any more. He had mused only recently - just before leaving with Sakura, in fact - that he'd become jaded and embittered at the ripe old age of thirty-one. Knowing what the enemy planned to do almost before _they_ did kind of sucked the surprise from their attack, and his intuition seemed to leech into daily life. There was just no verve to anything any more. He'd ruminated and reflected and come to the conclusion that _not_ knowing things made one's life far richer. Before they'd left, his life had settled into dull and unremitting routine, and most things had ceased to interest him.

Since leaving, things had picked up. A lot. He hadn't felt so alive in years. _Ah, the irony. Since technically, I should be dead._

And admittedly, some things did surprise him. Naruto, for one. The boy managed to do so frequently. Tsunade's request for them to leave had been unexpected, as well.

Sakura trying to knock him into next week was another.

He thought, for a split second, a single, strange moment, that she was running towards him to fly into his arms, like they did in those terrible romance films that he'd never admit to watching. Or _would_ admit to watching, but with a tilt to his voice so that whoever he was talking to wouldn't know if he was joking or not. He liked to keep 'em guessing.

And, apparently, so did Sakura.

He had more than ten years on her, however, and luckily a surprised jounin was still more than capable of fending off an irrationally enraged chuunin. Even if that chuunin had super strength and such a thorough knowledge of the human body that she knew exactly where to land each hit. He evaded the unexpected blow by a hairsbreadth, then slipped under her arm and jumped over and behind her, landing lightly on the water beyond.

"What was that for?" he asked, struggling to keep his voice steady and free from the shock that coloured it. He wasn't sure what welcome he'd been expecting, but this...this sure as hell hadn't been it. His foot nudged something and he risked looking away from Sakura to check his surrounds, getting his second surprise in as many minutes when he found a dead shoulder under his sandal.

Hurriedly, he moved back. What was the corpse of a Sound nin doing here, with Sakura? Did it have anything to do with her angry state? He paused, a sarcastic voice in his head expressing its opinion of his idiocy. _Really._ Even Tsunade would win if she bet on _that_.

"Like you didn't know," she spat, kneeling without taking her eyes off him, and grabbing a kunai from where her weapons pouch spilled out across the river stones.

"You'd be surprised how much I _don't_ know," he found himself returning dryly, giving the Sound nin another interested look. One swift stab to the side of his neck. An efficient and reasonably silent kill, if the trajectory of the weapon was anything to go on. Then something occurred to him and he slipped the patch from his eye, allowing the Sharingan to zoom in and calculate, skimming the corpse's flesh and proving his sudden thought.

Kakashi looked back at Sakura, who still watched him tiredly. She spun the kunai listlessly around one finger.

"He was already dead," he said, and she nodded, a bitter smile twisting her lips.

"Why are you telling me about the corpse? I'm fully aware you're just like him." She jerked her chin at the body lying between them. "You're another one of those undead replacement ninjas our good friend Yumi cooked up, just for me."

She spun the kunai one last time before slapping it into her palm and flicking it outwards, throwing it towards him in a single, fluid move. He shimmered, removing himself from its path, and then reappeared beside her, watching the weapon spin into the shadows on the opposite side of the stream.

"You think I'm one of Yumi's creations?" he asked, and she whirled angrily before jumping backwards, taken unawares. He was surprised by this turn of events, and it was annoying, because he shouldn't have been. He knew exactly what they were facing, and yet somehow along the way he'd convinced himself that _he_ was the target, that Sakura wasn't important enough or powerful enough to tempt their enemies into action. His willful ignorance had endangered her, and although she'd taken care of an immediate threat, there were going to be more along the way. If the other clearing was under attack from enemy-nin, it was safe to assume they would reach the stream as well.

And then something else clicked.

"Whose face did he wear?" he asked softly, pointing at the prone form of the dead man. She'd been unbalanced, unsettled by this deception, and she seemed furious at Kakashi's very presence, so he had a fair idea.

"_This_ one, of course!" she hissed, flinging a set of shuriken at him. He dodged easily and moved even closer, coming to stand behind her in a flurry of leaves.

"And he looked exactly like me?"

She was hurt and he could see that, but while he had no intention of mocking her pain, he needed to know how accurate this _Shoten no Jutsu_ was. He'd been fooled completely, of course, but it had been a sweet lie, an unintentional defeat, one he'd almost craved without knowing. Could it have been the same for Sakura? Had she _wanted_ to believe?

She pulled out a fuuma shuriken and unfolded it methodically, her narrowed eyes never leaving his own. "Not exactly," she admitted eventually, the blades of the weapon fully extended and ready to be thrown. "His hair was still brown from the dye, and he seemed a bit more cheerful."

Well_, sorry_. "Was he met with a thunderous punch as well?"

She flushed and looked away. "Er, that is to say, not quite, I mean...why am I explaining to you?" She rounded on him irritably, gesturing with the fuuma shuriken. "I'm sick of all this lying and playing around with people's hearts. It's bad form, low deceit and petty trickery. The way of a ninja should be an honourable one."

He avoided the waving of the shuriken and took an innocuous step back, repressing a beam of pride at Sakura's words. "You're right," he said gruffly, and reached out, patting her on the head. Two out of three of his students had learned what their occupation was all about. Or maybe they hadn't learned it, after all. Maybe they'd just known from the beginning.

She froze at the touch and stared up at him. "What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry," he said, dropping his hand. It had been a natural reaction. His arm had just moved on its own. "Old habit."

Truthfully, it had wanted to move to other places, but he'd used some of that thing he remembered as self-control, and corrected its path. Regardless, it looked to have been the wrong thing to do, because now she was staring at him with a mixture of fear, resignation, and...hope?

"Who are you?"

He blinked. "Hatake Kakashi." She'd need better questions than that if she was trying to ascertain his identity. From the little he knew of the technique, he expected that a _Shoten no Jutsu_ would have only the memories and thought processes of the person who summoned it, not necessarily the knowledge of the one they were trying to be. If Sakura wanted to prove he was the real deal, she'd need to ask things only he would know.

"When's Naruto's birthday?"

"October tenth."

"What colour is your quilt cover?"

"Khaki with black prints." _Hang on._ How did she know the colour of his comforter? She hadn't had that dream too...had she? He gazed at her with a trace of embarrassment, and had to get her to repeat the next question when he missed it entirely.

"I said, what was your sensei's name?"

He gave her a flat look. "Sakura, any nin worth their shuriken could have easily have researched these things. You need to ask me questions only I would know the answer to, things that only a few people would truly understand."

She bit her lip and stood in thought for a moment. "What was I eating, the day we left Konoha, when you came to get me?"

He thought back. "Fried fish and egg with toast."

She swallowed. "What did we get for dinner our first night in Ontou, at the inn?"

"We didn't eat anything. We went straight to bed and then the inn burned down."

"How many plates of tempura did you eat at Izanami's that first afternoon there?"

He frowned. "I didn't eat any. I just drank the miso soup, because I ha-"

His feelings on tempura were cut short as she dropped the fuuma shuriken and flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist in their first real hug. He stumbled, surprised once more, this time by her sudden warmth and distracting proximity.

But he couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face, couldn't pause the arms that crept up around her back, pressing her close.

"Kakashi!" she almost sobbed into his chest, rubbing her nose against his shirt. He stiffened and grasped wildly for boring thoughts of non-stimulating things. Running laps, Maito Gai, green tea..._just a minute..._

"Why were all your identity questions about food?" he asked, honestly interested as to what had gone through her mind.

She pulled back and he wished he hadn't said anything, but she stayed within the circle of his arms and gave a hesitant smile, blinking back what looked to be a sudden onset of tears. "Well, food's the universal coagulant, right? Meal times had to be things you'd remember."

She grinned tentatively and he readily returned it, gazing down at her flushed face, memorising the bumps and freckles that made Sakura herself.

"We've both been tricked," he said, and she sobered instantly, eyes darkening before she raised a palm and pressed it gently against his cheek. He let her trail soft fingers across the skin of his face, tracing his jaw, over his forehead, down his nose and then hoveringly lightly on the curve of his lips.

It was like his dream, only the situation was reversed, and then that was the extent of his thought processes because they were close, too close, and yet not close enough. He had to get closer, had to be nearer, had to have his face, mouth, closer to Sakura's. There were no words so he asked a question with his eyes and she seemed to respond in kind, the rich, dark depths of her eyes like the shifting waters of the stream beside them. He lowered his head and moved infinitesimally down to where her face angled up to his. He had reservations, of course, but for once they could wait and instead of worrying about what could have been he was damned well just going to do it and worry _after_ it was done.

And suddenly, all that separated them was a second, and a sigh, and just as he moved to traverse that final distance between them, a familiar stab of chakra exploded in his shoulder and he hissed in pain, disgustingly weakened, falling to his knees beside Sakura. He scrabbled at his back as Sakura opened her eyes and threw herself down next to him, small hands touching his arm in visible concern.

"Kakashi?" she asked, strain etching her voice. "What's the matter? What happened?"

"Nothing, more's the pity."

The voice came from the forest behind them, and Kakashi turned, gritting his teeth against the pain and squinting through slit eyes for some sign of their foe. It was unnecessary, of course. He knew exactly who was there. The reactivation of the cursed seal told him everything he needed to know.

He got to his feet with a grunt just as she dropped down in front of them. She was dressed in full Sound garb, complete with pale tunic and violet obi.

"You're in uniform this time," he drawled, trying to appear unfazed. "I'm honoured."

She grinned. "All for you. And Sakura-chan, of course."

She nodded at the girl beside him as Sakura got to her feet, hands clenched. "How goes it, precious? Hope I didn't interrupt anything."

There was a tense silence as Sakura gathered her wits, but then she smiled coldly at the Sound nin and picked up the fuuma shuriken from where she'd dropped it on the stones. "Nothing that we can't go back to another time, Yumi-_chan_."

He felt a hot something at the almost-promise, and it distracted him from the pain for a moment.

Yumi gave him an appraising look. "You seem well, Hatake. Had a nice trip?"

He tilted his head. "You know, I _did_ have quite a journey. But I suppose travel is preferable to the alternative - you know, what I expected from that scroll you gave me."

She laughed. "I'm impressed. You're a very clever Copy-nin, aren't you? And yes, you're not dead. It wasn't the point of the jutsu, after all."

"It was always a teleportation scroll?"

She nodded. "Things didn't go quite to plan, as you might have guessed. For one, you were supposed to end up in Sound, at my esteemed sponsor's place, and secondly, your little tagalong was the one who was meant to use it."

"How did it go wrong?" he asked in spite of himself, genuinely intrigued.

"It was designed to tap into the ninja's chakra to fuel the movement, and when two people activated it but used only one chakra system...well, as you know, you deviated a fair bit. Not to mention you were pulled off course by the chakra of the Nine-tails, to boot. It was an unforeseen outcome, and unfortunate, as well."

"Naruto?" Sakura leaned forward, intent on the conversation. "Naruto is here?"

Yumi gave her a patronising smile. "All in good time, precious. Your little teammate is a tad busy at the moment. And really, I have to learn to do things without talking all day. Shall we get a move on?"

"Please do," Kakashi said, testing his shoulder. Was the pain ebbing, a bit? He could feel _something_ at the edge of his perception.

"Are you going to try to kill us?" Sakura asked, a sarcastic emphasis on the _try_.

"I do only what my master wishes," Yumi replied obliquely, stretching her arms behind her back to loosen the muscles. As he watched, questions ran through his brain but he couldn't be bothered sifting through them for relevance, and settled on the simplest one.

"Why? What is it about Orochimaru that commands your loyalty?"

"Orochimaru-_sama_?" She scoffed the name. "Him, nothing. The one I do this for is my brother. He is the only one deserving of my loyalty."

The _something_ at the edge of his awareness changed and moved, a flicker coming from behind him as the air whispered the appearance of someone else in their little gathering. Sakura gasped and steadied the fuuma shuriken, and Kakashi stiffened before recognising the presence. He mentally added another piece to the puzzle and wondered if it wasn't complete, by now.

"Your brother, I presume?" he queried, trying again to feign nonchalance.

Sunlight slanted suddenly into the clearing and glinted off glasses as a pale hand pushed them up. And then Kakashi felt the cool slide of metal as a kunai was pressed gently, but warningly, against the juncture of his throat.

"Hello, Kakashi-san. I'm glad to be able to join you on this fine afternoon."

Kakashi inclined his head, politeness personified in the face of this new - yet old - adversary. He licked his lips and tried to ignore Sakura's shocked outrage, lest he inadvertantly display the same.

"Yes, long time no see...Kabuto."

----------------------------

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Well. I'm not really sure what to say about the last month or so away from TS, but I would like to make aware that I've suffered from extreme writer's block the entire time. Extreme and _specific_ writer's block, only for this fic. I had a plot device that I wasn't sure would work, and I puzzled over it for weeks, only to figure it out at 2:30am yesterday morning when I was trying very hard to sleep. I wrote it down, and wrote more down, and finally I've finished the same chapter (if I'm not mistaken) that I was partway through when I posted chapter 15 here so long ago.

I don't particularly want to apologise, because I couldn't help my inability to write, but I am sorry for setting a specific date and then not meeting it. I work part time, attend university full time _and_ have an active role in two fansubbing groups, and honestly, my times for writing are few and far between. I'm hoping this random burst of creativity is not a passing thing, and that I'll be able to finish the fic soon, but I'm not getting ahead of myself.

For those who have shown their continued support by reading this: thank you so much. I hope I haven't disappointed you with this latest installment. Everyone's wonderful reviews kept me going (or trying to go) and I feel honoured to have hit the 500 review milestone! I take that as quite the feather in my cap, review whore as I am, and it's a great feeling. :D

Thanks to the usual suspects. DarkenedSakura, Nushi, sureasdawn, blackestfaery, icarusT...you guys are my rocks. And I mean that in a good way, not the whole tied-to-my-feet-in-water way. --is delirious--

Comments and questions are always welcomed, and you can contact me here at ffnet or on my livejournal, princess(underscore)dexter.


	17. Collaboration

Chapter seventeen  
Collaboration

----

Sakura wasn't sure what to think when Kabuto jumped down behind Kakashi. Her brain had already experienced too many shocks today and it just shut down, allowing her to do nothing more constructive than just gasp at his surprise appearance. She watched him exchange pleasantries with Kakashi before she was able to stand, finding her voice on the way up. "What are you doing here?" she rasped, a kunai at the ready.

He nodded politely at her. "Sakura-san. I'm sorry if I've startled you. I'm just here to provide a bit of support."

"For Yumi?" Her lips twisted and she had difficulty even saying the name.

Kabuto gave her an amused look. "Yes, for my sister. In the world we live in, it's imperative to back up the ones who are important to you. You have a comfortable family life, from what I remember, so perhaps you wouldn't understand."

Like hell she wouldn't understand. Just because she had a complete family unit didn't mean she had never empathised with Sasuke's situation or Naruto's loneliness.

"Try me," she ground out.

He laughed and Kakashi took the moment of relaxation as an opportunity to remove himself from Kabuto's hold. He blurred from sight and reappeared beside her, before rubbing his neck and sighing.

"Really, Kabuto," he chided. "I found that all rather unnecessary. Surely you have more in your arsenal than constant invasion of personal space. All that hugging...you're quite the affectionate family, it seems."

"What can I say, Hatake? You're just irresistible." Yumi's voice floated out from her perch in a nearby tree and Sakura gritted her teeth.

"Do we get the grand retelling?" she asked, trying her best to ignore the other girl's presence.

Kabuto looked almost surprised. "Do you care?"

"Not really," Kakashi interjected. "But it almost seems like tradition, and I'd hate to break it this late in the game."

Yumi laughed, dropping down beside Kabuto and pulling out a kunai from her hip pack. "It's a beautiful story. I never get tired of the retelling, myself. Just the right quantities of tragedy, triumph and betrayal."

Betrayal. _I'll bet_. "So thrill us," said Sakura in the best bored tone she could muster. She leaned back on her heel and crossed her arms, keeping her own kunai pointed out lest either attack.

"Aw, no trust," said Yumi, noting the action.

"I rather think," Sakura replied, struggling to keep calm, "that your past actions warrant any contingencies on my part."

The other woman sighed loudly, but Kabuto nodded and gave her a quelling look. "No, Yumi. Sakura-san has a point. From what you've told me, you haven't given them an easy time."

Yumi pouted theatrically. "But Kabuto-nii -"

"Really," Kakashi interrupted, his mouth pressed into hard lines, "is this going to take all day? Some of us have things to do, people to see. I'm sure you know how it is."

Yumi expelled a great whoosh of air and flopped to the ground, crossing her legs and flipping the kunai up into the air before catching it again. "You tell it, nii-san. You do it better than I can."

Kabuto pushed up his glasses. "If you insist."

Sakura looked between the two of them, searching for some parallels of their appearance that would indicate familial ties. They didn't look all that dissimilar, but their similarities weren't blindingly obvious, either. Maybe the dark eyes and pale skin were all they had in common. Their hair was -

She squinted. "Do you _dye_ your hair?" she asked Yumi, her shock almost overcoming her consuming dislike for the woman.

The other girl grinned and ran a hand through her hair. "Maybe. Hatake can vouch for the annoyance of having such an unusual shade of silver, right?"

Kakashi said nothing and continued to frown thoughtfully between them.

"What are you implying?" Sakura asked hoarsely. Was she saying -

"Nothing, precious. Just messing with you."

Sakura took a step forward but a strong hand clamped down on her arm, and she looked up to find Kakashi giving her a warning look. He shook his head slightly and she tried to relax, giving him a nod in return to show she understood. If these other two were going to do the enemy thing and give out their life stories, then she'd just have to suck it up and listen to the whole thing. The scholar in her wanted to know and the kunoichi in her looked forward to getting information that could potentially help the village anyway.

"Fine," she said, crossing her arms again. "Please, tell us a tale."

Kabuto gave her another small smile. "Ah, Sakura-san. You have changed much since the last time we met. I'd have to say it's like you've grown up, become more mature." His smile deepened. "Did Kakashi-san have anything to do with that, I wonder?"

She hissed at the implications - regardless of truth - and opened her mouth to retaliate, but Kakashi beat her to it.

"Your attempts to rile me are dull and uninspired, Kabuto. I was expecting something a little more clever than a petty crack at our relationship."

She glanced over at him, his profile etched in the fading gold of the sunset. How could he be so calm, all the time? Didn't he understand what these people had done?

Then she saw the tic in his jaw, the corded muscles of his neck. He understood. Kakashi was just as angry as she was. He was only pretending he was unaffected by their words and actions, acting for their benefit as well as her own. He'd done so much for her already; the least she could do was to back him up on this.

She feigned a yawn. "Yes, and I _was_ hoping to catch up with Naruto. You mentioned him before and I haven't seen him for so long, but I might not get a chance today at the rate we're going. Will the talking drag on into the night?"

Kabuto's smile had slipped a notch earlier in the conversation and now it disappeared entirely. "Very well, Sakura-san. I thought any explanation was for your benefit, so your rudeness and animosity are entirely unnecessary."

Yumi threw and caught her kunai again. "Hurry things along, nii-san. I want to get some exercise before nightfall."

He nodded curtly. "Yes, you're right." He gave Kakashi a challenging look. "Now, Kakashi-san, what do you know about me already?"

Kakashi frowned. "Very little."

"You make the mistake of assuming that we care," Sakura said, with more confidence than she currently felt.

Kabuto turned slowly, his face set. "Do not think that you are in any way the equal of your sensei, Sakura-san. You are not untouchable, and despite my orders, I will not hesitate in harming you."

"Orders?" she echoed, feeling sick.

His face became amused again. "Perhaps you've been on the road for so long that you've forgotten why you set out in the first place. Orochimaru-sama needs either you or Naruto-kun. If you'll suffice, I'd rather save myself the trouble of rounding up your friend. It will be far simpler this way, since you've always been the weakest one on the team, haven't you, Sakura-san?"

----

Kakashi increased the pressure of the restraining grip he had on Sakura's arm. Had she always been this impulsive and easily aggravated, or was it the constant exposure to Naruto that had made her this way? Maybe he'd never noticed because any rebellion on her part would be drowned out by her louder teammate. Regardless, he'd need to get Kabuto on to another subject, and _soon_. Sakura was strong and she only got stronger when she was angry. His near miss from before was evidence of that. If she'd managed to land that punch to his face...suffice to say he wouldn't need the mask for hiding his identity any more.

"You're wasting our time, Kabuto," he said lazily, hoping to get the Sound nin back on topic. He was curious as well now, and half-wanted to hear the hows and whys. "And according to your charming sibling over there, we haven't got much of it left. So why don't you put us out of suspense and reveal all?"

Yumi pulled out another kunai and tossed that one up into the air as well. "Grant a dying man his wish, nii-san."

Kabuto didn't even turn to look at her. "Perhaps with less interruptions, I won't need this incessant prompting?"

She shut up. The only sounds in the clearing were the rhythmic whoosh-slap of the tossed kunai.

"As you're no doubt aware by now, I wasn't always from Konoha. I was recovered from the battlefield at Kikyou Pass, thought to be the only survivor of the group I was with. When I was brought back to Konoha, I was fostered into the house of Yakushi-san, an esteemed medical jounin."

Kakashi nodded. All of this had been in the files back home.

"It was with Yakushi-san that I learned the application of any number of medical jutsus along with a greater understanding of the human body and technical aspects of the healing arts. That was not, however, the first that I had known of such things. My original family, my clan, were once masters of fujutsu, a branch of the ninja arts that dabbles in poisons and their effects along with other powers. I believe you're familiar with the _Shoten no Jutsu_?"

Beside him, Kakashi sensed Sakura's breathing quicken.

"I didn't know of these characteristics of my clan while I was amongst them, however. I was far too young. This happened later, when I had accompanied Yakushi-san on a trip to gather medicinal herbs. By chance it turned out that one of his suppliers had fled the battle that killed my parents. I waited until night, when Yakushi-san was asleep, and then sought them out, managing to convince them it would be favourable in the long run to tell me what they knew." He paused to adjust his glasses and Kakashi was left with no doubt as to the manner of 'convincing'.

"They were not part of the clan; they had only accompanied them on that fateful journey. I didn't tell them my identity so naturally they were unaware of my personal stake in the matter. They told me that only one child had survived the bloodshed and after some further...prompting...they divulged Yumi's whereabouts."

Yumi added a third kunai and started juggling. "I too had been fostered," she said, taking up the story. "When Kabuto nii-san found me, we were both wary and unsure if our connection was real. But his knowledge of medical jutsu far exceeds my own, and he was able to perform a blood test that showed we were family." She smiled beatifically at Kabuto, who didn't seem to notice. "It was a year later that nii-san entered into service with Orochimaru-sama, and not long after that that I swore him fealty as well."

"How heartwarming," Sakura interjected sarcastically. "What a moving story of long-lost siblings reuniting against the odds. And then you had to ruin it all by turning evil and running off to join the Snake Lord."

"Why, Sakura-san, I sense bitterness," Kabuto replied. "Although, perhaps I can sympathise. You've had other stories ruined by a defection to Orochimaru-sama's side, haven't you?"

She said nothing for a moment, and when Kakashi gave her a sidelong look he found her face pale and lips white.

Yumi was also watching her reaction. "Ah, precious, didn't I tell you to not make your weaknesses as obvious as this?"

"Weak!" Sakura rounded on her, two spots of pink staining her pale cheeks. "Don't speak to me of _weak_. Who are you to say such a thing? Spouting this shit like you're someone important. If you've been serving Orochimaru as long as Kabuto has, why is he the right hand man and you're someone we've never seen before? Seems like you're small fry, Yumi-_chan_. Don't act above your station."

He'd wondered that himself but Sakura said it better than he would have. She just had a way with these things when she got riled.

Yumi's face turned hard and she snatched all three kunai from the air, standing and shoving them angrily into her hip pack. "Don't talk to me like that, you pathetic little -"

"Yumi." Kabuto's voice was mild but his smile was amused. "If you girls want to settle your differences, I have no objections. Go find a nice clearing and do whatever you like. But remember, Orochimaru-sama wants her alive."

Yumi's lips twisted and she bowed her head. "Very well, nii-san." She looked up after a moment and let her eyes rest on Sakura. "Are you coming, precious?"

Sakura hesitated, glancing up at Kakashi. He returned the look evenly and considered their options. Whatever happened, it seemed like he was going to have to face Kabuto, and he'd prefer to do it without having to worry about Sakura at the same time. She was a perfectly capable shinobi with any number of untapped skills and while he was unfamiliar with Yumi's talent - apart from her oft-repeated _Shoten no Jutsu_ trick - the girl herself had admitted that Kabuto was by far the better of them. Hopefully Naruto and Jiraiya would be done with their quota soon, and could help them out.

Besides, if he was interpreting Sakura's look correctly, she wanted this, wanted to test her skills against the other girl. And for what Yumi had put her through - put them _both_ through - he couldn't really blame her.

Not to mention, he was learning that it was very difficult for him to deny Sakura _anything_.

He removed his hand from her arm. "Don't go too far, okay?" he said, giving her a reassuring smile. She gave him a feral one in return.

"Got it." She turned to go.

"Sakura?" She glanced over her shoulder at him, her face already set.

"Yes?"

"Beat her good for me, okay?"

She grinned. "Will do." Then she blurred from sight in a flash of _Kumokasumi Senko no Jutsu, _reappearing on a tree some way down the stream. "Are you coming, precious?" she mimicked at Yumi, who hadn't moved.

The other girl took off, sprinting across the water. "Try and stop me!"

They disappeared and Kabuto turned back to Kakashi, who regarded him back with a serious eye. Kakashi reached up and removed his eye patch, blinking a few times to make sure the Sharingan was at the ready.

"Do you have anything to say, Kakashi-san?" asked Kabuto, pulling shuriken from his hip pack and slipping them between his fingers.

"I'm a man of actions, not words, Kabuto," he replied. "You should know that by now."

Then he blurred from his location, reappearing behind the Sound nin even as the shuriken were dispatched. The time for talking was over. The fight had begun.

----

Sakura led Yumi downstream a bit farther before veering to the left and moving in amongst the trees. She wasn't too familiar with this forest but no doubt a clearing would present itself soon. She preferred combat in an open area because to her it made fighting a little bit more honourable, with less to hide behind and more incentive to use one's skills. Then again, she was fighting Yumi, so there was no real honour to speak of.

A gap in the trees to her right. She spun to the side and landed lightly on the ground. Pine needles carpeted the undergrowth and the whole area had a clean, spicy scent.

She could only hope it would stay this way.

Yumi dropped down in front of her and took a moment to readjust her hitai-ate. "Nice spot, precious," she remarked, looking around. "You've got a real eye for location."

"Why, thank you," Sakura replied politely. "Always happy to oblige."

The other girl nodded. "Just trying to lighten the mood, you know. And I also wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings or anything. For well, you know."

Sakura _did_ know. "I'm sorry to throw your goodwill back at you, but I'm afraid there are some _very_ hard feelings. I don't know, maybe I'm overreacting, but the part where you killed all those people and tricked me and put that weird seal on Kakashi -"

"Ah, thanks for reminding me!" Yumi's face lit up and she held out a hand to stop Sakura from going on. "Just give me a moment." She brought her palms together and frowned for a second, muttering a few words before dropping her arms and motioning Sakura to continue. "I forgot to keep chakra going into the seal. It's a special one, you see. It's just about the only thing I can do better than nii-san."

Sakura's mouth was suddenly dry. "What are you talking about?"

"It's a special seal, just like I said. When I focus on it, it takes my chakra and feeds an actual poison into the bloodstream. Hatake may think he has it under control but it's nothing like the power seals Orochimaru-sama gives out. This one will never grow in size above the skin - it only affects what's underneath."

Sakura stared at her in a sort of stupefied horror. "Kakashi is getting poisoned as we speak?"

Yumi nodded, smiling again. "Yup! And the only two ways of stopping the spread of toxins are for me to stop putting chakra into it - and sometimes I forget, like before - or for me to run out of chakra entirely. For me to die," she clarified.

Sakura felt sick. Kakashi was in pain and a great deal of danger. She had to beat Yumi regardless, but now she had a time limit?

"How long?" she asked with difficulty around the lump in her throat.

The Sound nin tilted her head. "Hmm, it's hard to say. Everyone's different. Hatake's strong, so I'd give him half an hour before it really starts taking effect." She grinned. "Are we wasting time, precious? Maybe we should be fighting."

"Maybe we should," agreed Sakura, and charged.

The movement didn't faze Yumi, as she'd hoped it would, and the Sound nin dodged, whipping her kunai out and flinging one at Sakura with considerable speed. Sakura somersaulted sideways and avoided it, throwing back a trio of shuriken in retaliation. She landed as Yumi deflected them with another kunai and they stood for a moment, eyeing each other warily.

Then Yumi took initiative, running at Sakura with the kunai held out like it was a katana. She jumped up just before reaching her and sliced down, Sakura narrowly avoiding the hit by rolling to the side.

She was on her feet again instantly. She had to be. There was no time for recovery in a battle that had as much at stake as this one did. Her success would ensure Kakashi's safety. Her failure...she didn't want to think about it. The only option she had here was to win.

She withdrew another kunai and held it this time, the metal sliding in her sweaty grip. She couldn't do anything too tricky until Yumi showed her hand. It would be difficult for Sakura to form any sort of attack until she'd ascertained the other girl's strengths and weaknesses. It was unfair that Yumi knew what to expect of her, whereas the Sound nin herself was an unknown quantity.

This apparently occurred to Yumi too. "You're at the disadvantage, precious," she called over, settling into a loose stance. "I have something over you in every arena."

"That's lucky," Sakura called back. "Because I perform better when I'm the underdog."

She brought her hands together in a seal and melted from sight.

The jutsu was another one Kakashi had taught her in those early weeks out of Konoha, and was a handy one for concealment in an open area. It didn't actually cast any sort of invisibility but drew on chakra to move the water particles in the air between the user and the enemy. It had a sort of chameleon-like aspect in that it changed the colour of the water to the hues of the trees and brush behind the user. It was quite a difficult one even for someone with as much practice in chakra-manipulation as herself, but it was the only thing she could think of to throw Yumi off guard.

It worked. Kind of.

"What are you playing at, Sakura-chan?" The Sound nin glanced around without focus. "That won't fool me for long, you know. It doesn't matter if I can see you or not - I know you're here, and whatever happens..." she paused and crossed her arms, "...you can still _bleed_." She opened her arms and threw out a multitude of senbon, the small needles going in every direction around the clearing. Sakura dropped the jutsu and spun on her heel, dodging and ducking so as not to be nicked.

"Poisoned, I assume?" she asked from where she'd managed to reach, a few paces from Yumi's back. The Sound nin whirled, a trace of surprise on her face.

"Of course." Her smile was wide but shaky. "I believe if you do a job, do it right. None of this half-hearted nonsense."

"Really?" scoffed Sakura. "If you truly thought that, you wouldn't have given Kakashi a curse seal; you would have just killed him outright. If you truly thought that, you wouldn't have staged that elaborate spectacle with Izanami, and you most certainly wouldn't have tried to fool me as Kakashi. You haven't done a single job right, so far. We've figured you out every time."

Yumi's smile turned sour and her eyes became flinty. "Watch your mouth, precious. You don't know what you're talking about."

Sakura was on a roll. "Oh, I think I do. You know what else I think? I think you're _weak_. I think Kabuto is ten - no, a _hundred_ - times stronger than you. I think he's achieved much more in the service of that hateful Orochimaru than you ever could and he's probably had to fix up your mistakes on more than one occasion."

Yumi's face was white and her eyes glittered fiercely before she bowed her head and responded. "Shut_ up_. You really don't know know what you're talking about. Don't speak as if you know me or my brother."

"That's funny, Yumi-_chan_, because I _do_ know your brother. I've had to stomach his presence more often that I would have liked." Sakura laughed, the hollow sound loud in the quiet clearing. "But you're right. Maybe I should stop talking like I know you. I don't, because I don't care. And I don't care, because you are _no one_."

By this time Yumi's face was so pale she looked like one of the corpses she kept finding for her jutsu. Sakura waited for a reaction to her deliberate goading but none were forthcoming. The other girl's chest rose and fell, but apart from that, she said nothing.

Finally, she spoke.

"I am always reluctant to do this, Sakura-chan. I cannot justify using power that is not my own, even to overcome what you have correctly identified as my major fault - weakness. My brother is stronger than me, and I have always acknowledged that. He is a powerful, talented ninja and I am only a hindrance to him, as you said. But I do my best. I work to appease our mutual master and even if I do not respect him as much as I should, you besmirch his name by saying such things."

She finally looked up and Sakura bit back a gasp at finding the girl's dark eyes bleeding into a deep violet. A fiery pattern crept down her bare arm where it hung out from her tunic, and then it spread across her body, scrolling across her face in a sick reminder of something that had happened to someone else a lot, back in that time.

Sakura swallowed and fought the memory of Sasuke and all that it entailed. "What are you doing?" she asked, the kunai still held weakly in her sweaty, slippery hand.

Yumi's mouth twisted up into another smile, and Sakura's stomach lurched at the girl's now elongated and pointed teeth. "What does it look like, precious? I'm channeling my own curse seal to level two. And as soon as I've got this sorted and ready, I'm going to fight you, and you are going to die."

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Note:

_fujutsu_: I made this up. I'm sorry, I couldn't find a branch of ninjutsu that _does_ actually specialise in poisons etc - if anyone knows of one, I'll happily change the name.

Hey everyone! This one was a long time coming too, but blame finals for me and one of my betarers. I've been bashing out the next chapter and with exams finishing soon I'm hoping to be posting more regularly. I've found myself inspired by listening to songs by Kazuhiko Inoue (Kakashis' VA) from Haruka - does anyone happen to know if he's performed in any other anime?

Thanks as always to my betas Nushi and DarkenedSakura, with further thanks to blackestfaery, selle18 and koshkosh for their wonderful reviews.


	18. Preparation

Chapter eighteen  
Preparation

----

Kabuto evaded the first attack and ducked, spinning around low on the ground to knock Kakashi's legs from out beneath him. He in turn somersaulted backwards, landing lightly across from the Sound nin, and they sized each other up before running in again.

"We've faced each other before, haven't we, Kakashi-san?" Kabuto asked, slicing down with a kunai that seemed to sizzle through the air. Kakashi rolled to the side and brought his fingers to his face, hunching over and concealing them as he performed a single seal.

"Your memory is as good as mine," he replied dryly, before smoke grew around him and he felt the familiar separation of consciousness that marked the _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu._

There was a reason it was a forbidden jutsu. In the hands of a ninja with a small reserve of chakra or little control over what they did have, it was a dangerous and potentially fatal technique. Because each clone took an equal share of chakra, the number of replications made was very important. Kakashi's preferred application of the jutsu was to make only one clone, as it then had nearly as much power and stamina as he had. He was free to relocate his true form somewhere else, safely away from immediate combat. It wasn't that he was afraid. It was just that he'd made a promise once, and he had a much better chance of fulfilling it away from ground zero.

Besides, despite their past matchup, Kabuto was still an unknown. Kakashi had no idea of what to expect because he'd never seen the man actually try. Staying out of sight and out of danger would be a lot more conducive to living through the day.

He used the last vestiges of the fading smoke to blur to Kabuto's left and managed to situate himself up a nearby tree. Low, leafy branches shaded his form and he concentrated, pressing a hand to his temple so as to see through the Bunshin's eyes.

Below, Kabuto had given up on the kunai, perhaps realising it was as good as useless in the face of Kakashi's speed. He thrust it back into his hip pack and leaned over, bringing his hands up and starting a seal. The Bunshin watched the movement of his fingers and up in the tree, Kakashi's Sharingan whirled as the shapes formed and he worked to determine the best counter-attack. He focused with his left eye and saw an imprint in the air, an etching on the breeze of what Kabuto was planning.

It involved fire. Lots of it.

"_Katon Gyoukyou no Jutsu!"_ Kabuto cried, his abdomen swelling with the charging chakra before it travelled up his windpipe, ready to blow from his mouth.

_Now!_ he told the Bunshin, whose fingers flashed in a dance of figures before it shouted in his own voice, "_Ikkaku Hakuge!" _Liquid leeched from the air and his face felt suddenly dry as parchment. His tongue was rough and scratchy in his mouth and he blinked rapidly, trying to return some moisture to his eyes.

Down on the shore, water sizzled and hissed as it was torn from its home to fuel his jutsu, to repel Kabuto's in the only manner he could think of at this time. The younger man's face contorted as he leaned back to blow the fire, and just as a funnel of flames burst from his lips a great crack split the air. A large, horned whale made entirely of ice leapt from the stream and planted itself in the fiery path. The air steamed and misted where the two elements clashed, but with a whistle like a tea kettle the ice stopped the fire from reaching his Bunshin and Kabuto's stomach deflated back to its original state.

Hot water sloshed along the pebbles and both combatants leapt backward to avoid being burned. The small torrent melted into the stream and small waves appeared where the temperatures met.

Kabuto watched the bubbling water for a moment, before turning back to the shadow clone. "A bit flashy, wasn't it?" he asked with some amusement, removing his glasses and holding them up to the sky. "Your little display fogged up my lenses, which is always an inconvenience."

"Where did you learn that?" Kakashi made the clone ask. It was a Fire country jutsu and had once been a specialty of the Uchiha, but surely it couldn't have been…

"Why, Sasuke-kun, of course," the Sound nin replied, taking a section of his shirt and wiping it across the glasses with slow, methodical strokes. "I mentioned my interest in the jutsu and he graciously offered to show me how it worked. I'm," he paused, bringing the glasses to his face and blowing on the lenses, "a _very_ fast learner."

In the tree, Kakashi's mouth thinned to a hard line. On the ground, he allowed his clone to do the same. "You and your master are like peas in a pod," he directed the Bunshin to say in a cutting tone. "Never making up your own jutsu and just stealing everyone else's."

Kabuto replaced the spectacles and his lips turned up into a smirk. "Oh? I'm being lectured on originality by the great _Copy-Nin_ himself?"

_Ah, that's right. Whoops._

"I exploit no one to learn these things," he made the clone reply evenly, although he felt rather slighted by Kabuto's observation. "Any technique I've acquired has been through painless means, with no foul done."

"And you forget," the Sound nin replied, dropping down into an attacking stance, "that Orochimaru-sama no longer has any need to convince people to give up their jutsu." He brought a hand to his face and pointed. "The Uchiha eyes have been a _big_ help, in that regard."

Kabuto kicked off, running at the Kage Bunshin, and his fingers flew in readiness of yet another set of seals.

----

Sakura repressed the urge to step back and curl her lip at Yumi's drastically changed appearance. The seal was doing disturbing things to the girl's body and she was suddenly glad she'd never seen Sasuke's final form, even though Naruto had told her about it when she'd asked.

"_His skin went black, Sakura-chan," _she remembered him saying, his bright eyes dulled and lined with pain. _"His hair grew longer and his eyes were different, scary." _He'd looked away, staring unseeingly over her shoulder. _"He grew wings," _he'd whispered, voice breaking. _"He grew wings and he flew far away from us that day."_

She eyed Yumi's shoulders apprehensively, but there were no extra appendages appearing as of yet. Her skin hadn't turned black, either, but it was fast becoming a mottled brown with hints of blue, reminding Sakura of a week-old bruise. Her eyes were larger and violet, her hair had become longer and faded to white, and her teeth had elongated to sharp points that protruded from her mouth like fangs. Sakura was reminded unpleasantly of a snake and it seemed appropriate. Regardless of the respect she showed for him, Yumi was Orochimaru's creature through and through.

"I see you tremble at my powers, precious," Yumi said, and even her voice had changed, deepening and lowering and acquiring a whispery edge.

"I'm trembling all right," Sakura replied with false bravado, because she didn't know how else to react, "but it's at your freakish transformation." She stuck a hand behind her and clutched in her pack for some shuriken. _Yes, way to go. Intimidate the enemy by being a smartarse!_

Yumi's glowing eyes narrowed and she hissed her irritation. "You mock me now, precious, but soon you will be sorry to have done so."

Sakura swallowed and fitted the shuriken between her fingers. "I thought I was going to die. How can I be sorry if I'm dead?"

"I'm sure there's time for regret in _hell_," Yumi countered, pushing off and running at her with incredible speed.

If Sakura hadn't been trained in the ways of evasion, she might have been terrified. If she had never seen her teammates race, she might have been overwhelmed. If she'd never sparred with Kakashi, she might have been suitably impressed. As it was, she'd been spoiled by the fastest nin in Konoha and had been, for years, so Yumi's running speed was pretty much _crawling_ to her heightened, enlightened eyes.

She sidestepped the Sound nin neatly, stepping out of her path and flipping the shuriken with precision. The blades whirled, slicing through the air towards Yumi, honing in on her white-haired form before veering off and thudding loudly into the trunk of a tree behind her.

Her head turned toward the sound, just as Sakura had hoped it would, giving her time to raise one leg straight in front of her and slam it straight down into the ground, her heel making a slight noise in the dirt.

Yumi's eyes slid back to her. "You missed," she said, a smile beginning to form.

"Did I?" Sakura responded archly, as the ground beneath the Sound nin rumbled and split apart. Yumi scrabbled for sure footing, her sandals slipping on the crumbling earth.

Sakura took the moment of inattention to start running over, her arms out behind her so as to hit the best speed. Her feet flew lightly over the loose ground, having raced on much worse during her training with Tsunade. _Close now, nearly there_; Yumi's eyes widened as Sakura drew back a fist, and then her hand was travelling forward, the air around it sloughing back as if frightened by its very force. And then her punch connected and _something_ shattered with satisfying certainty.

It just wasn't the girl's nose, as she'd hoped it would be.

Sakura scowled at the splinters of log around her, and cursed the idiot who'd dreamed up the _Kawarimi no Jutsu_. Sure, it was fine when it saved _your _arse, but when your opponent fooled you, it was just annoying.

"That would have hurt." Yumi's voice came from behind her and she whirled, caught by surprise at the nin's stealthy approach. She leaped away, putting distance between them, but the other girl followed, her arms out and reaching, long talons appearing and growing on her hands.

Sakura landed and cartwheeled, flipping to the side to avoid the wide swathe of Yumi's pointed fingernails. The tips were bubbling and hissing and she was willing to bet her hitai-ate that they too were poisoned, and that she wouldn't be too thrilled with whatever happened should they make contact with her skin.

She jumped back again and slammed a fist into the ground, watching the earth tear a path to Yumi, dirt and rocks flying everywhere. She'd tried subtlety and it hadn't really worked at all, so an all-out offensive was in order. In fact, she shouldn't be watching this at all. She pushed off and sprinted along after the line of destruction, blurring to the side before swinging her arm down to hit Yumi and hopefully snap every bone in her body.

She'd been fast. Her movement had been camouflaged by the path of the dirt. She was confident that the other girl couldn't have sensed her approach, much less see it. But overconfidence had been the downfall of many a good nin, and Sakura had too much force, too much momentum to do anything aside from mouthing an expletive as Yumi ducked under her arm and kicked her clean across the clearing, where she smashed into a tree.

_Ow._ The Sound nin's foot had connected solidly with the small of her back and she _had_ to be covered in splinters after this little encounter. Sakura slid off the tree and rolled weakly to the side, coughing into her hand. Her palm came away specked with blood and she scowled, angry at Yumi for causing the damage but furious at herself for failing to avoid it.

Yumi laughed, high and cold. "I don't know what it is about you, precious, but I just want to hurt you as much as I can." She tilted her head, considering. "Maybe I just like your tears. So helpless. So pretty. So warm."

"You're more than a little freaky, you know that?" Sakura clung to the tree bole and managed to get to her feet. Probably nothing was broken but _something_ had cracked and she knew she'd be in for some major bruising tomorrow.

The girl shrugged. "I do my best. Oh!" Her eyes lit up. "You're so good at reminding me. I'm _not_ doing my best at all. No wonder this has been dragging on."

One of Sakura's kunai from earlier had embedded itself up to the hilt in a tree behind Yumi, and the nin crossed over to it, wrenching it from the bark with a low grunt. Sakura blinked. She'd applied a great deal of chakra-strength to that throw. A normal shinobi shouldn't have been able to just pull it out like that.

_Although_, she thought_, she does have that extra power of Orochimaru's running through her body now_. The curse seal had altered her completely, so who knew what it was doing to her chakra system, her inner coils. It would be foolish not to expect that her strength and power had increased dramatically.

Yumi turned, the kunai dangling carelessly from her hand. "You've got quite a throw," she said, indicating the point of entry on the tree. "It was a trifle awkward, getting it out."

""I do my best"," Sakura replied sarcastically, hugging her injured body and using the action to mask a stealthy hand reaching into her shirt. She had some senbon of her own stashed in there, and they'd come in handy right about now. She'd stitched them into the seams after Kakashi had returned with the clothing. If she could just reach, there were a couple of pressure points, a few vital spots that she could puncture to induce unconsciousness, or, if the situation warranted, bring death instead.

It was a tough call. She'd never killed someone before. But she was a ninja and ninja did what had to be done. It might hurt using her abilities to end a life instead of prolonging it, but it was probably all right. What had Yumi done, after all? How many people had she killed, just to get close to her and Kakashi? The numbers were horrible and unfair, but the guilt could hold over to later. She needed to stop Yumi, and it didn't really matter how. She doubted Tsunade would care if the girl wasn't alive for questioning.

"But is it good enough?" Yumi mused, caressing the tip of her finger with the kunai. She traced lovingly across her own skin, smiling dreamily down at her hand. "Will it ever be good enough?" she continued, and Sakura had a few seconds to be baffled before Yumi pressed down and sliced across with the weapon, bright spots of her blood dancing momentarily in the air.

And then she was reaching down to the upturned earth, slapping her hand against the crumbling dirt.

"_Kuchiyose no Jutsu_!" the nin cried, before time stopped and the air stood still and smoke filled the clearing.

----

Kakashi fell out of the tree.

He didn't even notice the ground's harsh welcome, didn't even register the rough scratch of undergrowth against his flesh. The pain that caused the tumble was far more powerful, was sudden and consuming and felt like a hundred different things at once. Surely he was being scorched and hammered with burning nails, his skin simmering and yet tingling, frozen and exposed to pricking ice. And boiling oil had to be pouring over him, scalding and crisping him, while shards and strips were methodically carved from his bones. His organs heaved and shuddered and it took his last ounce of willpower not to empty his stomach all over his lap.

Somehow through the haze of sensation he had a flash of foresight, and commanded his Bunshin to throw down a smoke pellet. The clone obliged and Kakashi dismissed it, welcoming the return of chakra and that essential bit of extra strength.

He drew a shaking, ragged breath and focussed his chakra, honing in on the burning, freezing mark on his back. The curse seal Yumi had placed upon him was the epicentre of the pain. The mark he'd thought he'd taken care of obviously hadn't been sorted out. Overconfidence had weakened him and the girl had used that to her advantage, managing to weaken him further. And at a time like this…

"A Kage Bunshin, Kakashi-san?" Kabuto's voice held a note of clinical interest. "How clever. And repetitive. You seem to favour that method of approach, using a clone to do your initial attack, before coming out and finishing the fight yourself." From Kakashi's prone position in the undergrowth, it seemed like Kabuto was getting closer, making his way gradually to where he lay. "I knew this from my research, of course, but it's different when you're actually facing the technique. I'm ashamed to say I quite forgot."

Kakashi gritted his teeth against the seemingly relentless pain and tried to get his scattered thoughts to congregate, to get the shards of his logic to smooth together and help him out of this situation somehow. He was almost helpless, lying on the ground, brain clouded and senses dulled by these constant waves of pain. His chakra was still moving sluggishly through his body, meandering though paths and coils and gradually getting closer to the stinging symbol on his back. He'd underestimated Yumi's power and severely overestimated his own, in this case. And if he wasn't careful, he'd be paying dearly for his mistake.

"Kakashi-san?" Kabuto had to be on the other side of the tree by now. He'd spoken softly but his voice was loud to Kakashi's suddenly oversensitive hearing, his ears raw from the pounding that had struck his head along with the other various pains. The nin was only metres away, all that separated them was a tree trunk and some shrubbery, and Kakashi hadn't felt this vulnerable since Itachi had come for Naruto all those years ago. The pain of the illusion he'd suffered through had been on par with this weakening, racking hurt that spasmed through his body, and he closed his eyes as the chakra found the curse seal and threaded through the marking, slipping through the weave of Yumi's chakra in an attempt to nullify it. He set it to work without his instruction, and took a deep breath, bringing shaky fingers to his chest and whispering a technique, the words barely forming through a jaw tensed against the pain.

"_Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu_," he managed, and the ground pulled apart to swallow his body into the welcome embrace of the earth.

Darkness and silence greeted him first. The need for air was something that always hit him a little later, and that was why he'd practiced this so often when he was younger. The Sharingan only gave one so much, and everything else needed to be worked out separately. He considered it fair. The Uchiha bloodline limit was one that had attracted much jealousy and dissent over the years.

Not that it mattered, any more.

Usually he employed this jutsu to travel through the ground and then eject himself from it, confusing his opponent and hopefully catching them unawares. It had other, darker, uses, but they were rarely necessary. He wasn't ANBU any longer, after all. This time, he wasn't sure if he could move even if he wanted to, so the relocation underground was just to buy a bit of time in which he could at least pause the pain that still assaulted his senses.

His chakra was still trying to work out the specifics of the seal, and he returned his awareness to it, gritting his teeth since thought seemed to aggravate the hurt further. He focused inward and was finally able to get a shaky picture of what the mark was doing to him.

Oh_, shit._

It wasn't enough that she was sending him wave after wave of debilitating pain. It wasn't enough that his strength seemed to be leeching from his body, making his senses weak and thoughts unable to process. None of this was enough, apparently.

That conniving, spiteful Sound nin was _poisoning him as well_.

Oh, this was completely screwed. From his view within he could see the seal he'd created to contain the mark in the first place, and it had done its job just fine. But the seal Yumi had placed upon his body was double-faceted, and he'd only addressed the surface aspect. It seemed there'd been a second part that had sunk into his body, undetected by him, and it was now sending out chakra to be converted to a substance that eroded his energy and poisoned his bloodstream.

She was killing him. And he most definitely couldn't allow that. Not after he'd been reunited with Sakura. Not after he'd met up with Naruto and Jiraiya. Certainly not after everything they'd been through.

He clamped down on his fragmented thoughts and directed all his will and most of his chakra to the mark, weaving power around the creeping poison and stymieing its effect. The pain lessened but still remained, a numb, fuzzy stinging at the edge of his awareness. It didn't matter. At least it was bearable. He opened his eyes and was just contemplating leaving the dirt when a hand smashed through the soil above him and clamped down on his arm, wrenching him from the dirt so abruptly that he felt the bone creak and snap as he emerged back into the open air.

Kakashi kicked out, catching Kabuto on the ribs and causing him to drop his grip. He spun before hitting the ground and landed – barely – on his feet, his wounded arm jarring from the sudden impact. He winced and jumped backwards, managing to land another blow to Kabuto's torso before shimmering and fading, reappearing safely ensconced in the shadows of a tree.

Kabuto leaned over, catching his breath. "That's quite a kick you have there, Kakashi-san," he wheezed, bringing a hand up to his side. "But injuries like this one won't stop me for long, I'm afraid."

Kakashi watched as blue light grew around Kabuto's palm, the Sound nin pressing up and down his torso, healing himself as he went. There'd been no hand seal, no incantation, but it wasn't a _kekkai genkai_, either.

How utterly convenient.

"You and your sister have such dissimilar abilities," he called out, eyeing Kabuto carefully. "You can extend life and she works only to end it."

Kabuto let the light fade and stood still for a moment, before reaching up and sliding his glasses higher on his nose. "It's funny what people believe, isn't it?" he asked, voice casual. "You tell them a partial truth and they take the story up on their own. I suppose it depends on how much they want to believe something. They read into things what they will."

Kakashi cradled his broken arm and sidled around, leaning heavily against the tree. If it wasn't one thing, it was another.

And what was Kabuto saying?

"Or maybe it's that you're so gifted in the art of manipulation," he said, pressing his fingers into the flesh of his arm to find exactly where the bone had snapped. "Maybe you're not telling a partial truth at all. Maybe you're just telling a whole lie."

There was a long silence and Kakashi resisted the urge to peer around the tree to see if Kabuto had moved. He extended his chakra net and sensed the Sound nin's location through that instead. It didn't appear as if he'd budged.

"I don't like to lie, Kakashi-san," Kabuto said, after further hesitation. "I much prefer taking something that is fact and then building upon it, allowing other people to interpret it as they will. Everyone does it, to a certain extent. Yumi just believed more than most."

A tendon in Kakashi's neck jumped. "She's not your sister," he said flatly, fingers finally finding the lump beneath his skin. The bone had stretched and broken in his forearm and it hurt like a mother.

A flash of light from across the clearing – Kabuto's glasses had caught the waning sun. "The word 'family' can be interpreted so many ways, Kakashi-san."

If he didn't dislike the younger man so much, Kakashi would almost have to admit a grudging respect for the amount of planning put in to this deplorable, diabolical scheme. "You've been manipulating her for a decade? Ten years of planning, for what? This battle? Her fight with Sakura?"

Kabuto chuckled, dry and amused. "That would be somewhat pointless, Kakashi-san. We both know this matchup is meaningless. The aim of my planning has never changed. I swore loyalty to Orochimaru-sama around the same time I obtained Yumi, and from that point I have never wavered."

Kakashi swallowed, trying to focus past the pain. Kabuto was telling him something, confessing something, and he had to listen, had to hear, had to get him to repeat himself. "But why?"

Kabuto blurred into his vision right before him, shimmering into existence before Kakashi knew what to think. The nin reached out and grabbed his broken arm in a bruising, crushing grip, smiling coldly at his hurt and surprise. "I should think it obvious, Kakashi-san. I want Orochimaru-sama's vessel to be myself."

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Notes on jutsu:

_Katon Gyoukyou no Jutsu: _Great Fireball Technique. The one that Sasuke practiced a lot on that ol' pier by himself. It's actually an Uchiha-exclusive technique (dodgy anime canon notwithstanding) so Kabuto using it is really a slap in the face.  
_Ikkaku Hakuge: _One Horned Whale. I guess I can't talk about dodgy anime canon because I took this from the first movie.  
_Kawarimi no Jutsu: _Replacement Jutsu. They rely on this one a LOT.  
_Kuchiyose no Jutsu:_ Summoning Technique. Generally for animals, but...  
_Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu_: Well, wiki calls it the "Inner Decapitation Technique" but I used it out of context. Used correctly, it puts an enemy into the ground. Kakashi used it here to hide _himself_ under the ground.

----

...and there we have it. A fight chapter - I'm sorry if it's not all that exciting but I'm not comfortable with writing action and I've done the best I can. Sorry also for the delay - uni has been very, very full on and I've got two weeks of holidays before I'm back at the grind. Thanks in this chapter go first to the usual crew (DS, M, C, other C and other D) and to Sharingana, who supplied me with links and love for Inoue Kazuhiko songs. You made my week!

To everyone who reads and reviews: you make this all worthwhile, and a special welcome to those people who seemed to have picked TS up at chapter 17. Not much longer now! (I hope...)


	19. Realisation

Chapter nineteen  
Realisation

----

The smoke seemed to take forever to clear, and Sakura's heartbeat sped to double time in the lull before the storm. Yumi had the power to summon, and any moment now, the _something_ that she'd called to battle would be rushing towards her, ready to attack.

Sakura had mixed feelings about the _Kuchiyose no Jutsu_. She'd wondered about asking Tsunade to teach it to her, but then decided against it. It had come down to whether or not she felt a summons would be useful in fighting and in the end she settled on _no_. Her battle style was an odd mishmash of techniques, moves and stances picked up from the various influences in her life. Her strength from Tsunade. Her charge from Naruto. Her kicks from Sasuke. Her improved speed from Kakashi. So many people had helped to shape her, and she'd taken a little from each of them to make something entirely her own.

She'd thought long and hard about it, but felt that to gain a summons at this point would work against her in the long run. She was still growing, developing as a ninja. To learn the _Kuchiyose no Jutsu _at this point was to be offered an easy way out, a crutch of sorts.

Besides, not that she had anything against them, but slugs weren't exactly the..._fleetest_ of animals. And even Katsuyu was limited to a few choice moves. She could spit acid, separate into smaller entities, or if all else failed, simply squash an opponent by sitting on them. If Sakura really wanted to, she could probably do any of those herself.

Except maybe the smaller entities thing.

The smoke began to clear. Her reaching fingers finally grasped the top of one of the senbon she'd concealed in her shirt and she withdrew it, slipping it between her fingers, ready to throw. She could be facing anything, an animal of any size, and maybe it was silly to put faith in a single length of steel. But if worse came to worst, she could drop the senbon and block with some taijutsu, and she was supposed to be good at evasion anyway.

And then the smoke faded entirely and the benefits of her senbon didn't matter any more, because Yumi hadn't summoned an animal, large or small. She was standing across from Sakura in the middle of an arrow formation, and flanking her in front and on either side were what seemed to be men.

Five of them.

Sakura blinked. She hadn't been expecting _people_. In fact, she hadn't even been aware that they could be summoned. It had been her belief that the only beings who could be called by the _Kuchiyose no Jutsu_ were animals or inanimate objects, like Kankuro's puppets.

Apparently, she'd been wrong.

"What do you think, precious?" Yumi called, looking rather smug behind her barricade of men. Sakura was reluctant to categorise them as nin as their stances were loose and vulnerable and they wore simple breeches and boat-necked shirts.

In fact, their stances looked almost…sagging. Their heads were uniformly bowed and their arms hung limply by their sides, giving her a sudden disturbing thought. She took a deep breath and let her chakra net spread, reaching towards the group with small, focussed tendrils. They crossed the earth and got to the men, relaying their findings instantly and confirming her horrifying suspicion. She dropped the chakra and gave Yumi a disgusted look.

"They're dead," she said, and Yumi laughed, high and delighted.

"Well done," she replied, bringing her hands together and giving a little clap. After a moment, the men followed suit, the flesh of their palms beating together with an eerie smacking sound. Sakura ignored the involuntary chill that spread down her spine and tried to concentrate on Yumi.

"It's quite a thrill, you know," the Sound nin continued, walking around her immobile arrowhead of bodyguards, who had stopped clapping after a moment. "Having the power to animate the dead. Being able to command your own little army. The perfect spies. The ideal soldiers. Bodies that can't be killed because they're already dead." She stopped in front of the first man and ran a hand down his slack face, looking up as if staring into his dull, sightless eyes. "I find they're so much more _obliging_ when they're dead, too, precious. They do what I want them to, _when_ I want them to." She turned back to Sakura and gave her a wink, the action made even more unsettling by the feral glow to her violet eyes. "If you know what I mean."

Sakura felt sick. "You're crazy," she managed, but the observation only made Yumi laugh again, higher and louder, maniacal this time.

"I've been thinking, precious," she said, dropping the kunai and drawing a finger over her bleeding palm. She brought the finger to her lips and licked the blood from her skin. "Maybe I'll keep you. Orochimaru-sama will have no use for you if you're dead, so we might have a little accident here and then I can take you with me. It would be…_interesting._"

Sakura felt more sick. Nausea was never good and it was especially true for mid-battle. She had to ignore the Sound nin's increasing insanity. She couldn't read too deeply into what Yumi was alluding to. There was no time, and she could avoid all the trouble by simply not letting her win today.

"I reiterate," she said, absurdly glad her voice wasn't shaking as much as she was, "you're _fucking_ crazy."

And then, before the other girl had a chance to respond, she flung the senbon as hard as she could and charged along in its wake.

----

Kakashi blinked. The poison-pain still hummed at the edge of his awareness and Kabuto's implacable grip still squeezed his arm into agonies, but it was the other man's words that had all of his attention now. "You want to be Orochimaru's vessel?" he echoed. "Why?"

Kabuto smiled and it reached his eyes. "Why not?" he countered. "Orochimaru-sama is probably the greatest storehouse of both jutsu and medical knowledge alive today. To have that knowledge and complement it with the immortality technique he has all but perfected…surely I needn't go into particulars, Kakashi-san. I'm a scholar at heart, and what scholar wouldn't want ultimate knowledge and all the time in the world to use it?"

Kakashi could only blink again. Kabuto wasn't trying for something more devious? "Forgive me if I don't quite believe you," he said around gritted teeth, still trying to ignore the other man's hold on his arm. "I knew you liked your research, but I hadn't anticipated you'd be so studious as to concoct a plan ten years in the making."

The Sound nin's smile set and his face turned cold. "It was never meant to take this long, Kakashi-san. My patience has been tested sorely, ever since that first run-in with your annoying little team. Naruto-kun, Sakura-san…Sasuke-kun. Who would have thought that each of them would hinder me in their own way." He paused and his grip tightened, his other hand coming up to twist part of Kakashi's flesh in the opposite direction.

Kakashi bit his tongue and tasted blood. Torture was something every ANBU was educated to expect, and some of the training exercises had been more painful than he cared to remember. But he couldn't honestly say he'd never been through this sort of situation before. He'd never been stricken by a cursed seal, then poisoned from within, then had his arm broken and _then_ squeezed and twisted. It was a new and wholly unpleasant experience, and as soon as he got some strength back he'd be extricating himself and smashing Kabuto into the ground. And he'd have that strength back soon. Any minute now.

_Fuck_.

"I'm proud of them," he murmured, focussing on the photograph from his dream, the one he'd left beside his bed back in Konoha. Back _home_. He thought of Sasuke's face, cool and aloof, hiding the maelstrom of emotions that had sent him off on his quest. He thought of Naruto, the boy's bright, cheerful face, and then his kindness and maturity that had developed over the years.

He thought of Sakura, and the pain lessened. His strength returned in a rush, flooding through his veins and chakra coils, spreading through his body beneath the flesh and removing some of the foggy numbness that had taken him over. "I'm proud of them," he said again, louder and more clearly, before cocking back his uninjured arm and punching Kabuto in the face.

It was an idea he'd taken from Sakura and the welcome she'd offered him earlier in the afternoon. Probably not as forceful as her's had been, but effective nonetheless. Kabuto dropped his arm but wasn't quite quick enough to defend himself and Kakashi's fist connected solidly with his face, snapping the delicate bridge of his glasses and causing them to plummet to the ground.

The Sound nin staggered back under the force of the blow and brought a hand to his face, touching his nose and peering at his fingers as if expecting them to come away with blood. He glanced up at Kakashi and squinted slightly.

"That wasn't very nice, Kakashi-san," he chided, cocking his head as if examining him.

"I'm not a very nice person," Kakashi replied, straightening painfully and flicking his wrist. He hadn't just _punched_ someone in a very long time, and the crack of knuckle against bone had not only been unexpected, it had also _hurt_.

Kabuto nodded slowly. "I understand that it would be difficult to maintain a kind persona among the ranks of ANBU, doing what you had to do in the squad." He paused meaningfully and Kakashi repressed a scowl, rotating his uninjured shoulder and wondering how best to attack. He was now vulnerable on the right side as well as being physically weakened all over from the poison-chakra. It was a not a matter of what he could do under the circumstances with his varied hurts, but what he couldn't.

There was the possibility of using some ninjutsu, but it was going to be hard with his arm. He could still do some taijutsu, but again, his useless arm could hinder him. He needed some sort of attack that wouldn't require too much physically but could help him defeat Kabuto with as little effort as he could get away with.

He slipped his good hand behind him as if reaching for shuriken, although the ploy was probably unnecessary with Kabuto's glasses lying on the ground. He'd rather be too careful, however, and that was why he'd lived as long as he had. The smoke pellets had slipped down behind a bandage in his hip pack, what with all the moving around they'd done, and he fumbled with them for a moment before he managed to draw them out.

It was an old trick, and he'd relied on it already in this battle of wits. He was counting on Kabuto to expect him not to repeat it. _Give me too much credit,_ he willed. And then he flung the pellet to the forest floor, using that first second of smoky surprise to bring both hands up to his face. He straightened the fingers of his broken arm, ignoring the tearing wrench that seemed to accompany the movement, and then pressed them against the pointing fingers of his other hand. This was one of the few jutsu he could perform in such a condition. It didn't require a fancy chain of seals and it was something he could direct from a safe distance. He didn't care if it made him repetitive, but if something worked, why change the formula?

"_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_," he whispered, and as the clone puffed into existence he threw himself to the left and hid behind a tree. The smoke dissipated slowly and when it cleared Kabuto was in the same spot, and to all intents and purposed, Kakashi was, as well.

He directed the clone to move casually to Kabuto's fallen glasses and glance down at them as if intrigued. "Why don't you just heal your eyes?" he made the clone ask. "If you have this medical power and the ability to fix what is broken, why don't you fix your eyesight, once and for all?"

Kabuto's mouth thinned. "There are limits to everyone's abilities, Kakashi-san. Even you have your weaknesses."

Behind the tree, he scowled.

"It's interesting, how these weaknesses develop. Like your interest in Sakura-san. No-one would have expected that five years ago. I must admit, I was somewhat surprised myself."

Neither Kakashi said anything, and Kabuto continued, apparently on a roll.

"Funny what proximity can do to a relationship. And amusing, what exile can do to one's thought processes. Perhaps you have lost your reason, Kakashi-san. Do you honestly think they'll accept this relationship back in Konoha? You've crossed the moral line. You were meant to be her teacher, a figure she looked up to. Have you betrayed the trust a student should have in her superior? Have you twisted her feelings into something they shouldn't be?"

Kakashi clenched his fist and the clone did the same, glaring at Kabuto with scarlet-whorled intensity. "You," he made the clone bite out, enunciating the word like it was poison, and maybe it was, "go too far."

"On the contrary." Kabuto smiled, chakra building around his hand again, blue light bathing the clearing an eerie, ghostly cast, "I've only just begun."

----

Sakura hadn't really considered everything when she threw the senbon at Yumi. She forgot her debate whether to injure the Sound nin or stop her any way she could and the path of the projectile spoke volumes. Had it hit, the needle would have travelled through the girl's neck and severed her spinal cord. Had it hit, she would have been completely immobilised and Sakura would have been able to finish her off in one more blow.

But it didn't hit.

Yumi had obviously sensed the oncoming weapon and made a curt gesture, at which one of the summons-dead stepped in front of her, legs creaking from the leathery pull of disused muscle. The senbon only reached his chest and hit with a hollow thud, embedding itself in his sternum, the end of the needle still reverberating from impact.

_Dammit_. Her only weapon was now useless. She'd have to rely on her jutsu now, and thus far, she still had no clear indication of Yumi's weaknesses. She could try a genjutsu, but she didn't know what type Yumi was and whether she'd be susceptible or immune. She could try a ninjutsu, but what applied to this situation?

Yumi gestured again and the phalanx of manthings started shuffling forward, their steps dry as paper on the crumbling forest floor. "Nice try, precious," she called again, and Sakura didn't even spare her a glance, knowing the look she'd be wearing would be one of sardonic amusement. "But it would take more than a senbon to overpower me."

Sakura gave a theatrical shrug and eyed the approaching men. "You'd be surprised at how useful a nice senbon can be. There's a lot you can do with a well-aimed needle. I know exactly where I'd like you to ram one."

The girl laughed. "You've got such a way with words, I simply have to keep you. I think you'll be a nice addition to my little group here. How do you feel about living again?"

Sakura raised her fist and let chakra slide down her inner coils to pool just below the flesh, creating a thin, rock-hard shell underneath the skin of her hand. She thought momentarily of Kakashi, poisoned slowly as they talked, and let her face grow hard also. "I think once will be enough," she replied, and readied her hand as the first manthing reached her.

He gave a weak sort of lunge and she dodged, stepping to the side and then in, close enough that she could smell his rotten, decaying flesh. She resisted the urge to gag and punched him instead. She used her strength, of course – she was on a time limit – and felt her chakra flow through her hand and into the body, forcing it into the corpse in an explosive release designed to push out the other side on impact.

Nothing happened.

She caught her breath and leapt backwards, staring at the still-approaching body in a mixture of apprehension and disbelief. "How?" she muttered, risking a glance down at her hand.

Across the clearing, Yumi laughed again. "How do you punch chakra through organs that aren't there? How do you burst blood vessels that no longer pump with life? My corpse soldiers aren't human, precious. At least, not any more."

Sakura's mind ran frantically over possibilities as she nursed her hand, which was jarred from impact against rigid flesh. _Of course_. She ducked under an awkward punch from one of the manthings and dipped her shoulder, rolling between the legs of another. _Because they're dead, she's kept them in a perpetual state of muscle lock. _ She spun out of reach of a third corpse and gave it a once-over with professional eyes before handspringing backwards and taking refuge in one of the surrounding trees. She thought back to the explanation Tsunade had given her on death and the changes it brought to the human body.

"_In the period immediately following cessation of bodily functions, the subject remains as if in life while the organs and tissue enter a state of rigidity. This state can take up to twenty-four hours to enter fully, but once it has, limbs are locked into place and movement of appendages will be difficult, if not impossible."_

At the time, she'd wondered why anyone would want to move a corpse's limbs and Tsunade had answered her softly, eyes distant as if thinking of something else. "Not everyone dies a pretty death, Sakura," she'd said, tracing a pattern on her desk with an abstract finger. "It's a poor example, but say a teammate takes four or five shuriken in the back. The nin was weak, or they were poisoned – regardless, they fell forward, an arm coming up to cushion the fall. The body was discovered and carried back for a memorial, but because the fluids have drained from the body and the limbs have locked in place, it's very difficult to pull that arm back to the side. The body lock fades after time, but in that period of rigidity, nothing can be done without damage to the corpse. And while the spirit is gone, of course, we try not to disrespect the dead by pulling every which way at their arms and legs." She blinked and her eyes were focussed once more, and Sakura was left to wonder who had died so terribly in her master's past.

Sakura inched around the tree, aiming for another look. She'd only gotten that one glimpse, and she wasn't sure if what she'd seen was correct. Her tree shuddered and she realised that one of the manthings had reached the trunk and was now bashing his meaty hands against the bark, apparently trying to get her down. She braced herself and used their proximity to take another look.

_She had! _That Sound bitch was really something else. At all the major joint areas – the wrist, elbow, and what she could see of the manthing's shoulder under his tattered shirt – extra skin had been sewn on with angry black stitches, puckering the dead flesh beneath. In doing so, Yumi had been able to keep the body in the rigid state, while still allowing simple, lurching movements, sacrificing none of the muscle stiffness that a corpse obtained. She'd managed to stitch together a hard warrior capable of basic movement that also had immense strength.

It was scary.

Sakura swallowed. They were slow and ungainly, and so posed no real threat. Yumi was the one to concentrate on, the one she should be worried about. But there were so many of them staggering around that it would be difficult to get across without having to face one. And even if they started fighting, Yumi could come over and distract Sakura from her task…

No. If she wanted to defeat Yumi, she'd have to get rid of the corpse soldiers first. And if fighting them wouldn't work, then maybe the reverse approach would have some effect.

"You're wasting time, precious," came Yumi's amused drawl. "I mean, you can stay up the tree as long as you like, but just hiding there won't help Hatake, you know?"

Yes, she _did_ know. "Shouldn't you stop talking to me?" she called back, channeling chakra to her palms again. "It's a poor technique, because while you blab your mouth, the enemy might just regroup."

Yumi paused. "I don't fear you, precious. Hatake, maybe, but I don't fear you at all."

Sakura set off at a run down the tree trunk. "Well, maybe you _should_." On the last word she stretched out her hand and planted in the centre of a corpse soldier's chest. Nothing happened for a moment. And then her chakra started working, and the manthing started to heal. She could feel the power flow through her body and into the other one, just enough to give the flesh a semblance of life. Taut muscles relaxed, stretched skin grew flaccid, and after a heartbeat or two – Sakura's, of course, nothing could bring the dead back to life – the soldier folded in on himself, flopping to the ground in a lumpy pile of skin and bones. Another limped closer and she gave it the same treatment, feeling a fierce grin spread across her face at her success. She glanced up to rub Yumi's defeat in, but took an involuntary step back when she saw the other girl had gone very pale under her bluish, blotchy skin.

"Doesn't feel so good now, does it?" Sakura taunted bravely, disposing of another corpse soldier with the same technique.

Yumi raised her arms. "You try my patience!" she shrieked, as _something_ rumbled and the ground beneath Sakura's feet seemed to tremble at the sound.

She caught her breath and took another step back. The ground shuddered again. She glanced around and found the soil beneath the trees heaving, moving like it was being pushed from below, like something long buried was fighting to break out. Surely Yumi wasn't…she couldn't…there was no way…

No, she was a puppet master, like Gaara's brother, _only_ a puppet master. She controlled the bodies of the dead. She couldn't revive them.

Surely.

Yumi brought her hands together and started a complicated seal chain. "We'll see who feels good after this, precious. And," she crooned, "it won't be you." She slapped her hands together in one final seal and Sakura's skin prickled, the hairs on her arms and neck standing to attention as if electrified in the sudden heat. Yumi opened her mouth and Sakura started running forward, ideas of jutsu and speed and power fading as one thought came to the forefront of her mind and took control, forcing her body to move without direction, knowing only one thing. To save Kakashi, she had to stop Yumi, she couldn't let her complete that jutsu. She had to –

"_Yomigaeri__no Jut—"_

Sakura stumbled as Yumi stuttered and then she was on the ground with a mouthful of dirt. She jerked her head up to see what happened and pushed against the earth, surging to her feet and snapping into a combat stance, ready to face whatever Yumi was going to do.

They faced each other and Sakura waited, her nerves twanging with anticipation. Yumi was just standing there. Nothing was happening. And then the air shifted slightly like a change in altitude, causing Sakura's eyes to water and her ears to pop.

"What are you doing?" she ventured to ask, wondering if this was another one of the Sound nin's tricks.

"Nothing!" wheezed Yumi, her mottled face darkening to a deep scarlet, and then deepening to an equally unhealthy shade of violet. The change to her features the curse seal had brought on was receding even as Sakura watched. "_I'm_ doing noth—" she croaked and gurgled and shuddered and fell, and in the time it took for her body to topple over and hit the ground, Sakura finally understood what she meant.

There was someone else, somewhere close, and they were powerful enough to have downed Yumi with a thought. The girl's legs kicked feebly and Sakura could only watch, her mind going over who could possibly have that power and where they could be. She felt dangerously calm, indifferent and unaffected, even as Yumi's breath was squeezed from her throat by phantom hands. The Sound nin shuddered once more before stilling, the life seeming to leech from her body even as Sakura looked on. As a medic-nin she was horrified, devastated to see someone die before her eyes. As a kunoichi, she felt only a numb relief to see an enemy eliminated. Yumi was dead, and someone had saved Sakura the trouble of killing her herself.

One wet thud, and then another. What remained of Yumi's army dropped to the ground, whatever strange jutsu she'd used losing its effect with her death. _Of course_, her mind argued logically, _without life there can be no chakra, and without chakra, how can the jutsu be expected to work?_

She wanted to laugh, but she couldn't quite bring herself to do it. There was something strange about this, about the change in the wind that made the air stick to her suddenly hot and clammy skin, while also making her shiver at an unexpected chill. The wind had a bite and Yumi was dead and that prickle at the back of her neck meant she wasn't alone…

"You're trembling."

She didn't dare turn around. At this point she _couldn't_, even if she wanted to, and she most definitely did _not_ want to do that. Because if she turned around she'd see the face that matched that voice - so familiar, and yet so different as well - and the tears that she'd been trying so hard to keep at bay would brim over once again and she'd be back where she started, crying over _him_. She couldn't do that. She wasn't that girl any more. Those feelings were dead and buried, like he should be.

"Shock, I expect." She fought to keep her voice calm. It was a battle almost as draining as the one she'd just had with Yumi, and that scared her far more than she cared to admit. The mental fight was always tougher than the physical one, but for some reason the strength and will had been leeched from her bones. It was all she could do to not fall over, to not pull her arms around her body and hold herself close. She wasn't ready for this encounter, it wasn't time to see his face.

But even as she thought that, her inner self rallied the point. This confrontation was inevitable, she argued with herself, and she was forced to agree. It was never a question of "if", but only ever "when".

She cleared her throat as quietly as she could. "You've saved me a lot of trouble," she said without turning, pitching her voice so that he could hear. And where exactly was he? Behind her, of course, but…he didn't register clearly on the edges of her perception. There was no hot core of chakra to be felt on her alert net, no indication of another person at all. Why?

_Why not?_ She swallowed, hard. He wasn't a person, really, was he? He was more and less, same and yet other. She'd known but she'd never _known_, never could have known, until now.

A rustle in the undergrowth. He was approaching. She felt like the scene was oddly disjointed somehow, that it was like a film at the cinema playing wrongly for some reason. The reel wasn't fitted properly, or the projector was broken…either way, it wasn't supposed to be like this. She should be sensing him, not hearing him making his way across the grass. She should be facing him, not kneeling with her back turned. She should have someone to fight alongside, instead of crouching here all alone—

_Kakashi_.

Yumi was dead. Her chakra poison would have no effect on him now. But where was he? Still in the clearing? Still facing Kabuto? She could see now that it had been a trap all along, that there had been two enemies for a reason, that their movements were so predictable the Sound nins had choreographed the battle to suit themselves. They'd been obvious and it was almost disheartening, but then a shadow fell across her and she flinched at the loss of warmth.

"She served her purpose." The voice was cool and the observation was a detached one, like he was talking about a horse or a farm dog or some other animal that lived to work. She felt a flash of perverse pity for Yumi, lying cold and twisted only metres away.

"And for that she had to die?" Honestly, she hated the girl. But she'd wanted to take care of things her own way and he'd stopped her, like he always had. He'd stunted her growth in every arena, and she had only just started to learn how to overcome the barriers he'd helped to put in place.

A whisper of fabric, cotton scratching over skin. He'd slid into a crouch behind her and her heart threw itself against her ribs, acting on instinct as fear took her over at his proximity and the dark power she could finally sense, now that he was so close. He was a predator, a great cobra, and at this moment Sakura had never felt more like prey.

He laughed. It too was cool and distant, and the situation seemed less than amusing. "She served her purpose, then lost sight of it. Ambition and emotion clouded her perception and she veered from the course she had been directed to. That is why I detest working with women. So emotional, and easily distracted." She thought that his voice had changed over time; it sounded slightly different to all those times it had rung inside her head.

Sakura's breath came in shallow huffs and she still couldn't turn around. _He could kill me_, she thought in paralysed wonder. _He could kill me right now and I don't know if I could stop him._

"So emotional," he repeated softly, pushing to his feet and moving in front of her, placing himself in her line of sight. She kept her head down and her eyes averted, still unwilling to look and see what time had brought to one for whom it had stopped. She wasn't ready, would never be ready, and now she was—

The hand shot out quickly, the arm like rubber, stretched and sinuous and catching her unawares. She gasped at the movement, unable to shift her head from where he now grasped it, in the vice-like grip of one smooth, cold palm.

"In my research," he continued pleasantly, that soft voice gaining another timbre, a slightly different pitch that she was still familiar with, nonetheless, "I found that men are far less likely to be ruled by their emotions. Women are weak because of their inability to look beyond the emotional blockade. And here, of course, is a prime example. It seems there are more advantages to this particular body than I previously calculated, if you are rendered immobile at first sight."

She wanted to tell him she hadn't looked yet, that it had been his voice that had paralysed her, his voice that had filled her with fear and something else. But _her_ voice wasn't working, and perhaps it was just as well. She was already caught.

"Look at me, Haruno Sakura. Look at me and give me what I need."

And she didn't want to because she was stronger than this, because she was a strong kunoichi and Tsunade was proud of her, because Naruto had told her to look after herself, because Ino wanted her to tell someone something, because Kakashi was, Kakashi was…

Sakura looked up.

And he was inside her mind and everything changed and nothing changed and he looked different only older but time stopped for him didn't it? and time stopped for her and time stopped and he really did look different and all she could see were two pools of crimson each with three black, circling sharks and—

It was the wrong one.

The _wrong one._

_The wrong Uchiha._

Itachi regarded her. Orochimaru smiled. And Sakura screamed.

----------------------

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Notes on jutsus:

_Kuchiyose no Jutsu: _summoning technique.  
_Yomigaeri__no Jutsu:_ not a real technique, but yomigaeri seems to translate as something like "resurrection".

Sorry for the delay again, I haven't written TS for months. I'm hoping to inspire myself to finish it soon, but in the meantime I'm rediscovering the awesomeness that is _The X-Files. _I don't watch tv regularly, so it's nice having the whole series on dvd.

Thanks to everyone, but especially DS, Molly and Char. I also wanted to mention I wrote an AU Kakasaku lemon, which has been posted up at aff net and at my writing journal. The links to both are in my profile page if anyone's interested. Till next time!


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